


Consequences of Choosing

by Bellsastuff



Category: Divergent (Movies), Divergent Series - Veronica Roth, Marvel (Comics), New X-Men: Academy X, Runaways (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-03-25 15:30:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 43,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3815572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellsastuff/pseuds/Bellsastuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a post apocalyptic Chicago, survivors of a terrible war inhabited Chicago and got to work in an attempt to bring peace to their city.  But after disagreements on the best way to do that, the Factions system was created, requiring every 16 year old to choose a Faction, to live by their rules and work towards their goals.  (Pre Divergent timeline, in the Divergent universe but populated by Marvel characters)  (You don't need to have read Divergent first to understand this.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have literally no idea where this idea came from, but I kind of like it. More characters will be entering the story as it goes along, so if you don't see your favorite yet, give it time.

The room hummed with activity as the factions settled into their spots. Honest Candor in black and white grouped near each other as they debated hotly, Abnegnation in somber gray smiled placidly, Amity in red and gold joked and chatted while Erudite discussed their work impatiently, waiting as the Dauntless finally entered the room in a jostling mess of dark clothes, tattoos and wide, rakish grins.

Tommy picked at the hem of his Erudite blue sweater, fidgeting on his feet in eager anticipation as he stared at the Dauntless members. There was no other option for him. He was Dauntless, through and through and even though that choice would almost certainly tear him away from his brother and adopted parents, the choice was well worth it.

Billy looked over to give Tommy a long suffering look, arching his eyebrow as he looked down at Tommy's wiggling foot. Billy knew that Tommy was leaving Erudite, he had for years, but he'd never tried to talk him out of it or dissuade him. Dauntless was in his blood.

The room went hushed as a shyly smiling man stepped forward from Amity, their leader and probably someone and important but Tommy just couldn't bring himself to care. The sooner this was done, the better. Besides, this dude looked like a total fucking nerd.

"Hello everyone." He said, voice calm as he looked around the packed auditorium. "As I'm sure you are all well aware, my name is Bruce Banner and I've been selected by the Amity to represent our faction in the Choosing Ceremony. It's really an honor to be in front of you all, and I promise that I'll try to make this quick, since every sixteen year old in this room has a very big day ahead of them.

The Choosing Ceremony marks the biggest decision that any of us can make. It's when we ask ourselves, 'What can I do to make the world a better place?' and align ourselves with the faction that can guide us towards the ultimate goal of a world at peace.

The founders of our city argued amongst themselves over how they could make our world a better one, with each blaming one vice over the rest. The Amity founders blamed aggression and cruelty for the failings of the world, and as such, created a faction that sought peace through kindness and working together without dissension. To move this goal forward, members of Amity heal the sick, feed the hungry and bring joy to those around them through music, art or a gentle word.

Others blamed cowardice. The way to a world with security and safety would be built on the back of those willing to defy fear and take up arms to protect those who needed them. They created Dauntless and began to train each other in the taming of fear. Dauntless shields us against the raiders beyond the fence and keep the peace from the Factionless who roam our streets, gladly putting themselves in harms way so no one else has to.

Another group looked to greed and narcissism in the hearts of man and saw it's responsibility for corruption and pain. Abnegation members place their needs and wants aside in favor of the needs and wants of their fellow human being. Through their work, Abnegation provides us with incorruptible and selfless public servants, helping in any way they can without asking anything in return.

Some studied the world and discovered that what was holding us back was ignorance. Erudite members keep our city humming with their research, using their brilliant minds to discover technological advances that allow us to live in comfort. Through logic and reason, the Erudite fight everyday to know more than they knew the day before and we all benefit from their discoveries.

Finally, the last group of founders looked to what they saw as rampant dishonesty and duplicity and saw it as a blight on the human race. To the Candor, the truth is black and white and the sharing of that truth is the greatest gift that one can give the world. It is for this reason that we rely on the Candor for unbiased and honest answers, making them ideal to run our legal system and provide our city with open and honest communication.

Initiates, the choice that you make today should not be an easy one to make. The work of the factions is vital to our existence and the role that you choose to fill should not be taken lightly. Look deeply within yourself to know which of the factions' goals match up with your own.

We have all heard the term 'Faction before Blood', and I can guarantee that none of you will understand how true that statement will become for you. Your faction will become your family, providing for you as your parents have before you and providing you with the guidance and care needed to ensure that you will be able to live a life that is fulfilling and rich."

Bruce smiled warmly out at the crowd, a ripple of applause rising in response to his words. After a moment, he raised his hand to quiet those gathered and motioned toward the five bowls in front of him. "When your name is called, you will step forward and take up the knife. Once you have cut your right hand, you may let a drop of blood fall into the bowl of the faction that you commit to join."

One by one, he held his hand over each bowl. "For the Candor, their bowl contains glass, to signify your hunger for transparency.

The Amity bowl is filled with earth from the orchards, to signify the growth of joy and kindness in the hearts of man.

The Erudite bowl contains water, ever changing and fluid, as a metaphor for the human intellect.

Abnegation's bowl contains several small gray river rocks, worn smooth by the ebb and flow of the river and comforting and cool to the touch. 

And finally, the Dauntless bowl contains burning coals, unyielding and painful, but necessary for day to day living."

The Amity leader took a step back, nodding his head. "And with that, let's begin. Our first initiate to choose will be David Alleyne."

Tommy's eyes snapped over to David's seat next to his parents, taking a moment to admire how his ass filled out his neatly ironed navy blue pants. As though he had eyes in the back of his head, David turned his head just enough to catch Tommy's eyes, giving him a small understanding smile as he strode up to the stage. 

He picked Erudite, of course. Neither of them had questioned where the other would end up, a fact that helped each other to keep their friendship and occasional make out sessions casual and easy. Not that it was easy to be friends with David, since he was a snobby prick most of the time and patronizing all of the time. But David was never boring and his dry sense of humor never failed to make Tommy crack up. As David settled back into his seat, his dark skin looking really freaking good against the white of his shirt, the weight of Tommy’s decision began to settle onto his shoulders.

A mournful cry from Amity brought his mind back into focus as he looked up, a huge blonde Amity kid solemnly letting his blood drop onto the Candor bowl. "Damn." He muttered to Billy, "The second dude up is a transfer? What are the odds."

"And he's transferring from Amity to Candor. That's... pretty brave, actually."

Quirking a brow, Tommy gave his twin a long look before breaking into a smirk. Billy scowled back at him but the attempt to look fierce was dashed by his black bangs flopping into his face at just the wrong moment. "You wanna have his babies, huh?" Tommy teased, wincing as Billy slammed one of his bony elbows into his ribs.

He definitely wasn't pouting as he looked back to the stage, not a bit. But the guy in Abnegation gray who strode up when he was called up had caught Tommy's attention. The guy kind of looked like David, with the same dark skin and strong features, but the way that he walked was fierce. Nothing about him seemed right in the drab Abnegation colors that the faction seemed to hide behind and Tommy knew before the guy had picked up the knife where he was transferring to. He didn't even flinch as his blood hissed when it hit the coals.

The next initiate was just as interesting. She was fucking gorgeous, dressed in a sharp dress of Candor black and white that complimented her pale skin and jet black hair beautifully. The way she walked spoke of confidence and bravado and Tommy could have thanked a higher power as she also transferred to Dauntless. 

"Who's drooling now?" Billy muttered, which earned him a punch to the arm. But instead of punching him back, Billy leaned his shoulder onto Tommy's. Which made sense, since the Amity leader was starting to call up kids with last names that started with G, and that meant that Billy would be choosing soon. 

Tommy turned his head, taking a long look at Billy's face. They weren't completely identical, but it was close. Billy's jaw was a little wider and more baby fat had remained in his cheeks that it had for Tommy's. And even though he'd just shaved that morning, black stubble had already started to appear on his chin and upper lip, unlike Tommy's pale blonde hair that seemed to blend against his cheek. Billy looked back, giving him a weak smile. "You going to be okay without me being there to get you out of trouble?" He asked softly.

Tommy gave him a scowl, about to answer as the voice broke over the crowd, "Kaplan, William."

And with one last wink, Billy was out of his seat and heading up to the stage. If Tommy was a betting man, and he was but not about his brother, he'd have put money on Billy picking Erudite. He was smart enough to do well in the Faction, though he'd probably end up hating it eventually. But as Billy stared at the bowls, he didn't go for the Erudite bowl, hesitating before holding his hand over the bowl of glass.

Candor. Huh. Tommy blinked, letting that sink in before letting out a whoop, clapping his hands as loud as he could. Billy shot him a look as he headed towards the Candor, but the grin on his face was worth it.

Without his brother there, the rest of the Choosings were painfully boring. The amount of people transferring went down more and more the further on, with kid after kid deciding to just go back home to their families and factions. It was weird to see an Amity boy that had worked with Tommy on a school project, a big blond guy named Lou who was so squeaky clean and nice that it hurt, go Abnegation, so that was interesting. The Abnegation leader, another clean cut blonde guy named Steve something, shook Lou's hand and it looked like the former Amity was going to cry. The girl sitting in front of him gave Tommy a stern look as he snorted back a laugh, but she turned back around pretty quick after Tommy gave her a good sneer.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally heard it. "Shepard, Thomas." It was go time.

He couldn't stop himself from grinning. This was it. Finally, he was going to get out of stuffy, boring Erudite and get to go to a faction that did cool shit and looked awesome while doing so. In his excitement, he ended up cutting himself a little deeper than he should have but as his blood hissed on the coals, he couldn't care less.

Tommy was going to be Dauntless.

\-------

Billy stood as the last initiate chose, searching the crowd for a spot of blue surrounded by black. He felt the sudden need to thank their difference in genetics for Tommy’s distinctive pale blonde hair as he spotted his twin. His grin was massive and gleeful as the Dauntless clapped him on the back, bouncing on his toes like he wouldn't be able to wait another minute to run. That grin didn't dim a bit as he looked over to Candor, finally finding Billy.

'Don't die!' Billy mouthed, smirking as Tommy flipped him the bird. Just as he returned the gesture, the Dauntless turned and began to charge out of the building, looking like a flock of crows leaving the nest. And just like that, Tommy was off. Gone.

When they had been discovered, left in the Erudite library as infants wrapped around each other, they'd been separated and sent to live with two different childless couples. After all, the Erudite decided, there was no real need to keep them together if they were too young to remember the other. But their families ate at the same cafeteria and they went to the same classes and somehow, they always managed to gravitate to each other like moons to each others' planet. When Tommy's parents had given up on him, the Kaplans had taken Tommy in without question.

They had always found each other. Time and time again. There was no reason for that to stop now, even with factions between them.

"You okay?"

Billy nearly jumped out of his skin, wheeling around to stare at the blonde Amity-born initiate. And his mind, just as quickly, decided to leave him. 

This guy was good-looking. Ridiculously good-looking. He was built like a brick house, probably from having worked manual labor on the Amity farms, with sun-bleached blonde hair and a tan that was darker than any Erudite had probably ever had since the beginning of time. What really caused his mind to short out was that wide, crooked smile, which faltered a little as the boy asked again, "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah." So much for Erudite wit, Billy thought glumly. "I mean, yes. I'm great. Just watching my brother go. He went Dauntless. Which is actually kind of neat because that means that he's probably going to get to meet the Wolverine and if he doesn't tell me about it, I'm probably going to have to kill him." 

The Amity boy's eyes brightened as he seemed to miraculously not notice just how inane Billy's babbling had been. "Did you hear the story about him fending off eight Factionless by himself with nothing but a flint knife that he'd made himself? That one has always been my favorite."

"Who hasn’t?! Though I always thought that the one about how he and Tony Stark managed to defend the wall during a raider attack was way better, but. That might be the Erudite talking." He couldn’t hold back a delighted laugh as he held out a hand. "I'm Billy, by the way."

"I'm Teddy, and I have to admit, I'm really glad to meet someone else who likes those stories too." His hand was rough and calloused, but his grip was gentle, hiding the power behind his fingers. The group of Candor began to file out and Teddy reluctantly pulled his hand back, letting the crowd take him out of the Hub, Teddy close to his side.

The Candor around them seemed brighter and even more alive as they walked down the streets of Chicago. The sun that eased the chill of the spring air seemed to illuminate the white shirts of the Candor, making every animated movement of their hands as they talked seem bigger and somehow more alive. When Billy closed his eyes, he could see smears of light behind his eyelids where the glare of light had left marks, making his breath hitch.

"Is this... weird to you too?" Teddy muttered, having to lean close to be heard over the clamor of passionate talk all around them.

Billy nodded, opening his eyes again once the glare had faded. "I knew they were loud from the Hub, but not this loud." His voice seemed like a more like a mumble than a voice, compared to the short staccato bursts of speech that rang out all around him. The words of the black and white clad Candor around them bounced off of the walls of the old abandoned skyscrapers, overwhelming the initiates in a wall of sound.

But Billy could still hear Teddy’s voice as he leaned in close to his ear, voice soft and smooth.

"Well, it's not really the noise that's freaking me out." Teddy admitted, his fingers rubbing over the hem of his hemp shirt. "Amity are pretty loud, you know? But they're usually singing or laughing or something, not... arguing." 

He couldn't help laughing, nudging Teddy's arm with an elbow. "Do the Amity even say anything mean? Ever? My mom says that they're the most frustrating patients because they can't stop saying nice things about everything in their life."

"I'm pretty sure that you could light an Amity on fire and they'd thank you for keeping them warm." He said wryly, but the smile on his face was fond. "But yeah, it's a big deal to keep the peace. And a lot of the transfers that find themselves there really need that, so I can't blame them for it."

"Yep, they keep Mom pretty busy. The transfers, I mean. She's a psychologist, so she works there pretty often. And with the Candor sometimes too, that was how I learned more about them."

Teddy's eyebrows raised. "You've been to the Merciless Mart? What's it like? They don't dress this fancy all the time, do they?"

"The Merc Mart is... It's huge. Really huge, and almost everything is black and white marble. And yeah, they still dress like this in there too. Well, at least what I've seen."

"Great." He muttered, scuffing his boot against the pavement. "I'm really going to look like a banjo strumming hayseed."

"I think you look nice." Billy said absentmindedly, eyes widening a little as he realized what he said. "I mean. You just look Amity, that's all."

Darting a look over, Billy could see a slight blush of pink on Teddy's cheeks, prompting him to reach for anything to change the topic. "At least you aren't wearing glasses that don't even do anything for you. They're kind of dumb - no, they're really dumb but everyone basically everyone in Erudite wears them. And the Candor are probably going to hate them."

"Probably." Teddy agreed. "Maybe I should wear them and just tell everyone that I'm Bruce Banner for Halloween."

His face felt empty and exposed without his glasses, but the sight of the Merc Mart was incentive enough to slip the thick dark frames in his pocket. "You actually should." Billy remarked, "We could paint you green and you could walk around lamenting the need for colorless fertilizer."

Teddy laughed at that, wrinkling his nose. "I'm not sure I could recreate the smell though. Everyone knows he was green for weeks after the chemical spill, but no Amity was mean enough to tell anyone that he smelled like rotten eggs for weeks."

"You could always just roll around in rotten eggs, you know. You have to show some dedication if you're going to imitate your former faction leader."

"I would probably puke on you."

"And I would definitely puke back on you. I have three brothers, if there's one thing that I know, it's how to get revenge. Oh, and by the way." He pointed to the limestone building that sprawled out along the city in front of them. "Say hi to our new home."

If he hadn't looked like a banjo strumming hayseed before, it was an apt description now. His jaw dropped as he stared wide eyed at it, even stopping for a moment before Billy tugged at his sleeve. "Who needs that much room?!" he finally stammered out.

"The faction that houses prisoners, apparently. But they're in the basement, so it's not too dangerous. I think." He looked over, giving Teddy a quick grin. "It's neat, huh?"

"Yeah." He said, voice soft and almost swallowed up by the clamor around them. "I've never seen anything like it."

The Candor around them finally slipped into silence as the entrance, smaller and less impressive than it rightly felt it should be, grew closer. By the time that the mob had entered the lobby, bright and lit by sunlight, there was no sound beside footfalls on the marble floor. The older Candor who had surrounded the initiates peeled away to stand with the Candor that lined the edges of the lobby, revealing a man in a black suit standing in front of the black and white tile scales of the Candor symbol.

Billy and Teddy shot each other a quick look, sharing thrilled smiles despite their nervousness. After all, it wasn't every day that someone got to see the infamous leader of the Candor, the Hawkeye himself.

"So. This is the new crop, huh?" After flashing the initiates a crooked grin, he stepped forward. As he came closer, Billy began to become confused. The Candor were usually exquisitely put together, with not a hair out of place or a spot of dirt on their white clothes, but the Hawkeye was downright disheveled. His dirty blonde hair was mussed, barely hiding a hearing aid over one ear and his square jaw was dark with what looked like a day old beard. Everything from his slouched shoulders and easy calm in his eyes looked as far from Candor as they could be.

The Hawkeye, also known as Clint Barton, was infamous in the city for his outspoken tongue. As Factionless rioted and the Dauntless grew unnecessarily violent and Abnegation stepped meekly to the side, everyone had heard the stories of how he'd marched into the Abnegation central building and not left until the Dauntless and Abnegation had come to a balanced understanding on the role of care of the Factionless. Even the Wolverine was said to be a little scared of him, though that was probably just an unfounded rumor.

Billy was about to conclude that it had to be just a dumb rumor until Clint leaned forward and began to speak, voice carrying well in the marble foyer. 

"You all have no idea of real pain is." He drawled, but his eyes were bright and intense as he looked over each of the initiates one by one. "But don't worry, you will. We are going to flay your lives to pieces and build you back together one truth at a time. And it is going to be hell. The best part though? That will never end. Not while you're wearing the black and white."

The Hawkeye began to pace in front of them, with such lazy strides that he looked like he was commenting on the weather instead of terrifying a group of 16 year olds. "A lot of people talk about the Dauntless initiation and how it's so tough and all that bullshit. But trust me on this one, kids. Not one of them could survive ours.

The other factions are too scared of pain. And I'm not talking about skinning your knee. I'm talking about hearing the person that you love most in the world saying that they don't love you back. I'm talking about that pain where you look at yourself in the mirror and see everything that you did wrong and hate yourself. Your brain can fuck you up and make you want to off yourself better than anyone or anything else in the world.

What Candor does, the reason we exist, is look at all the bullshit in the world in face and embrace it. No one is unique because they're flawed, we're all flawed in unique ways. We are all terrible, amazing, terrifying beings and Candor is strong because we're the only ones able to accept that and still keep going."

A smirk wormed its way onto his face as he looked at the now pale initiates in front of him, voice softening just a bit as he continued. "Candor doesn't hide. Candor doesn't run. And once we strip away all of the bullshit lies that you say to yourself and everyone else in your life, you're going to be strong too. Ore isn't a sword until it's been lit on fire, melted down and beaten into shape, but once it has been, there's nothing stronger."

The words seemed to settle into bright marble of the lobby, a pregnant hush in the air. Clint suddenly broke into a grin, calling out "Welcome to Candor, kids." before turning on his heels and striding out of the lobby to an eruption of cheers from the faction members around him. 

\--------------------

Being Dauntless was already completely awesome. They'd all ran down the stairs like a pack of wild dogs, everyone whooping and cheering as the crowd burst out of the hub and charged up the hill towards the tracks. "Fuck yeeees!" Tommy cheered, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "We're gonna hitch a ride on the train, this is so cool." 

"This is dangerous." The Abnegation transfer corrected, giving him a look that was reproachful and mature and really hot all in one and Tommy made a mental note to figure out how he pulled that off because that must be a skill.

"You chose Dauntless!" Tommy crowed, his grin growing even wider somehow as the train began to pull around the corner. "Everything's going to be dangerous from now on. Though, yanno, if you're scared and want to stay, I don't think anyone's going to be too torn up about the Stiff wussing out."

The Abnegation born shot Tommy a glare at the Stiff comment, apparently not that big of a fan of what every faction called the Abnegations. "I was stating a fact, I wasn't saying that I wasn't going to do it." 

The train's whistle rang out as it rumbled close, prompting the black clad crowd to start to jog beside it, jumping into the train cars with a practiced ease. They made it look really easy and it nearly broke Tommy's heart to find out that jumping a train was, in fact, really fucking hard. He could run fast enough to catch up with the train, sure, but actually jumping up into the car was pretty tough to gauge. The Abnegation was even on board before Tommy, but he finally made the jump and landed face first in the car. 

"Impressive."

Tommy rolled onto his back and wished that he had knocked himself out, because of course the smoking hot Candor transfer was in the train car too. Plopping her hands on her hips, she smirked down at him. 

"I can see up your dress." Tommy croaked, which was a lie but totally worth it since he now knew that she looked even more adorable when mad. He just barely managed to get out of the way of her kick, pushing himself up to his feet with no small amount of pride at the fact that he already had a nosebleed from his jump. First blood was cool, right?

"Yo, are you sure that you're Erudite born?" A massive guy in the corner in Candor black and white asked, pointing to the girl. "Because I'd think that you'd be smarter than pissing Kate off. She will mess you up."

"Why Santo, that's so sweet." Kate said airily, tossing a lock of hair back over her hair.

"I actually dunno if I'm Erudite born." Tommy said with a shrug, relaxing a bit as the bloodthirsty retribution in the train car seemed to die down to a tolerable level. He'd started to dab at his nose with his sleeve, about to explain himself until an unfortunately familiar person spoke up. 

"No one even knows who his real mom is. She just popped out him and his pussy brother and left them in the Erudite library. Nature really won out over nurture with them."

His heart quickened as Tommy slowly turned, eyes narrowing as he finally saw him. Kessler. Fucking Kessler. The jackass who had beat on Billy for years until Billy finally got his hands on some of the Dauntless fear serum and shot him up with it. After that, Kessler had made himself scarce but Tommy never forgot how the much bigger kid had waited until Billy was alone to beat him to a pulp. Why, out of anyone in Erudite, did Kessler and his goons have to go Dauntless? Why not David or even Billy? "Fuck off, Kessler. If being Erudite born means that I'd have a dick so small that a mouse would be embarrassed of it, then I'll stick with my own genetics."

Kessler opened his mouth, probably to make another stupid comment that only his goons would laugh at, but was interrupted by the howl of the train. They were on a bridge now, the tops of buildings beneath them as the initiates crowded to the open doors of the train. Whoops were heard as the Dauntless in the beginning of the train began to jump off the train on onto the roof of one of the buildings, a good 8 foot drop. But that wasn’t too bad, the bad part was the fact that the train was about four feet away from the roof and for all that Tommy sucked at physics class, he knew enough to know that missing the roof would kill you pretty quickly. 

"They're trying to kill us." The Abnegation born guy muttered, eyes wide.

Tommy barely heard him, his blood thumping in his veins as adrenaline washed over him. Backing up in the train, he broke into a quick sprint as he jumped free of the train. He was screaming, sure, but the moment where he was airborne, propelling forward thanks to his momentum, was fucking awesome. And sure, he may have bit it on the landing, but adrenaline was still with him as he popped back up. Dimly, he recognized a man's scream, blinking his eyes as he noticed the some of Kessler's goons looking down the building. Kessler's eyes were wide and his skin was pale as he yelped, "Fuck, Josh didn't make it!"

Josh had broken one of Billy's ribs once. "Good." He decided, brushing his pants off and surprisingly happy to see the pair of Candors and the Abnegation guy on the roof too, and none worse for the wear. Katie's knee was all fucked up and Santo looked dazed, but still. They'd made it.

"Listen up, bubs."

Tommy snapped his head up, jaw dropping as he realized who the short hairy guy standing on the edge of the roof was. That was the Wolverine. Billy was going to kill him if he didn't tell him that Tommy got to see the leader of Dauntless. The man chewed on a cigar, eyeing the initiates and Dauntless around him, his voice a low growl. "You made it. Good."

Looking like he hated every moment of giving a speech, the Wolverine glared at them once more for good measure. "Initiates. You chose Dauntless. Whatever your factions were before this, they don't mean shit here. I don't care about your family, I don't care about your feelings and I sure as fuck don't care about whether or not you're having fun. Dauntless is real good at what we do, but what we do ain't pretty. If you're scared already or if you're having second thoughts or generally behaving like a little bitch, you can jump off the roof now, because it'll be an easier way out.

I'm not here to make sure you become better people or any of that bullcrap. I'm here to lead the Dauntless. I lead warriors who spit on fear and keep going no matter what. This ain't a game, kids. There are dangerous people outside and inside the walls and the only ones between them and the people in this city who are just trying to live their lives? It's us. Either we fight or they die and I don't know about you bunch of sorry pissants but I ain't alright with civilians dying." 

The grin that came across his face was downright feral as he plucked the cigar from his mouth. "The only way into Dauntless is down that hole beneath me. It's a good 50 foot drop, but you got to be careful because the whole in that roof ain't big and is liable to kill you if you don't jump right."

The initiates pushed forward to look down from the roof, where another building lay about 20 feet down, the hole in the roof showing only darkness. Muttering broke out among the initiates, even the Dauntless born, but the Wolverine just smirked, puffing away on his stogie. "Who wants to go first?"

"I will." The Abnegation boy said quickly, adam's apple bobbing as he started to shrug his gray Abnegation coat off. 

"No way!" Tommy yelped, "I want to go, that looks fucking insane!"

The gray clad kid glared at him, looking ready to rip him a new one but was interrupted as Kate scrambled up onto the roof ledge. With a loud whoop, she jumped off before either of them could even get their bearings, white dress fluttering in the wind as she fell.

"That is such a turn on." Tommy stammered out, eyes huge as the Stiff actually nodded in agreement. A yell was finally heard from inside the hole, announcing, "Kate Bishop, first jumper!" 

Roars erupted from below and the Abnegation boy was quick, jumping down after her despite the obvious terror on his face. "Second jumper, Elijah Bradley!" The voice announced, and enough brain had finally left Tommy's dick and returned to his brain as he got up onto the ledge and leapt down into the dizzying darkness below.

The fall actually took his breath away and a thought flashed over his mind for a moment that this could all be some really fucked up way to kill initiates until he abruptly hit a net, bouncing up high in the air a few times until the net finally settled. He needed a few moments to catch his breath, but the scarred up brunette holding down the edge of the net didn't look like he was all that keen on waiting. 

Ground was kind of underrated, he decided the second that his feet touched the ground. Really underrated actually, being able to stand on something solid was surprisingly great. The man finally had to tap his shoulder before Tommy realized that he was talking to him.

"What's your name, initiate?"

Tommy grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet again with nervous energy. "Tommy Sheppard. And hey, can I do that again?"

\-------

The door to the Candor Outside Faction Initiate quarters swung open with a loud bang as a man strode through the doors. Head head high, if not a bit haughtily, he seemed to have been carved from the stone of the Merciless Mart, all sharp edges, pale skin, and jet black hair. His black leather briefcase bumped against his long legs as he walked with a purpose to the kitchen table in the middle of the quarters, setting the briefcase down as though he was the only person in the room. The initiates had gone quiet, eyes wide as the man began to set out various pieces of what appeared to be jewelry down onto the table in front of him.

The hush in the room persisted until the man finally turned, looking the initiates in the eyes one by one. "You seek to be Candor." He said, voice cold as the winds that slid through the city in winter. "You're already at a disadvantage. Children born into our Faction are taught from day one that there is no way to redemption or peace but through the truth. We have four year olds here who have spoken more hard truths than any of you. In your respective birth factions, I'm well aware that you were not instructed in that kind of manner. As such, I will be the one in charge of exposing all the lies that you were trained to carry and making you truth bearers. I am Jean Paul Beaubier."

Like a hawk picking out a particularly tasty morsel, Jean Paul's pale blue eyes landed on Teddy and, in particular, the red shirt that stretched across his broad chest. Billy started as Teddy started to fidget, running his hands along his corduroy pants as his callouses rasped against the fabric. "Amity boy. We'll start with you."

Teddy gave Billy a nervous smile before easing himself off of the couch, the smile on his face tentative as he shoved his hands into his pant pockets. Jean Paul eyed him, able to look Teddy in the eye due to their similar height, but he shook his head and pointed to a wooden chair. "Sit, sit. You're too damned big. What do they feed you in Amity that can possibly make you people so massive? Merde!"

Billy's heart sank as he watched Teddy's shoulders slump down as he leaned into the chair, eyes to the floor. In the Hub, the Amity and Candor children had always stayed away from each other as much as they could, the sweet, if not entirely sincere, words of the Amity seeming to rankle the Candor as much as the Candors' biting comments disturbed the peaceful chatter of the Amity. This was not going to be an easy initiation for Teddy, but he hadn't expected the berating comments to start quite so soon.

The snap of Jean Paul taking out a pair of rubber gloves had surprised almost everyone in the room, besides the Dauntless girl who sat slumped in a chair. They all watched in silence as he opened a few sealed paper packages, carefully arranging them on the table before pouring a bit of alcohol onto a piece of cotton and began to thoroughly wipe down the top of Teddy's right ear. The Dauntless girl seemed to perk up at this, leaning forward. "You do piercings in Cantor? I figured that was just a Dauntless thing."

"Only for the Amity born initiates." Jean Paul murmured before picking up a pair of clamps and settling them in place on the top of his ear. Teddy's eyes had closed, his breathing slow and easy as it belied the tension of the constant tapping of his foot. "They need the extra help. You'll all be getting something of the same."

With that, the pale man pierced the cartilage of Teddy's ear with no warning or concern, threading a cuff through the pierced skin. In quick succession, there were three cuffs down the line of the blonde's ear, joined together by thin chain of silver. Teddy hadn't spoken during the piercing, instead keeping his fist clenched and body still. As Jean Paul deposited his gloves in the near by trash can, Teddy finally opened his eyes, giving Billy a quick, hopeful smile before wiping the tears that had collected on his eyelashes. As Jean Paul began to put away his piercing supplies, he asked Teddy in a quiet, almost kind voice, "How are you feeling?"

For all that Teddy's nature was honest, he had been raised Amity. "I'm fine." He said quickly, his beatific smile flashing on his face for a brief moment before he froze, clutching at the table as he let out a sharp yelp of pain. Billy hadn't realized he was off the couch until the Dauntless girl had grabbed his wrist with an iron grip, pulling him back down.

Jean Paul didn't seem worried by Teddy's reaction. In fact, a small, predatory smile slid across his face as he knelt down in front of the reeling boy. "You are no longer in Amity. You no longer have to say what you think other people want to hear. And if you continue to coddle those around you with your lies, the earring will know, and it will shock you again. Enough shocks, and it will damage your brain. I'm not sure if you've seen the Factionless that seem lost, the ones who mutter and stumble everywhere they go? Those are ours. The ones who couldn't trust those around them with their secrets, and instead, chose their lies." 

"It is completely illogical to torture those who are going to be the future of your faction!" Billy hissed, fury welling up in his gut. "You can't really think that electrocuting someone just to get them to stop being nice is a good, much less sustainable idea. What are you going to do when all of your initiates end up half brain dead Candors? You're going to end up like the Abnegation when they tried this shit to 'fix' some of their faction!"

Jean Paul's face was infuriatingly amused as he looked over, eyeing Billy up and down as he took in the blue of his clothes. "Of course an Erudite would only argue about the logic of the idea. For the record." He said in a cool voice, "The Abnegation weren't the only ones to try electro conversion therapy to 'fix' the homosexual or insanity problem. All but Candor, and ironically, Amity, were the ones who didn't. The Amity didn't because anything that causes pain isn't 'nice' enough for them, but the Candor did not. Do you know why?"

Teddy's voice croaked as he spoke, leaning against the table as small aftershocks caused the muscles in his arms to twitch. "'Truth makes us transparent. Truth makes us strong. Truth makes us inextricable.'. No one who believes that is going to be okay with anyone denying their own truth."

Jean Paul turned back to Teddy, elegantly plucked brows high as he seemed to actually look at Teddy for the first time. "An Amity quoting the Candor Manifesto? I can honestly say that I never thought I'd see the day." He smiled, not much, but enough. "You are right. However, there is another aspect of it. After an initiate from a faction who had started early on the attempts came to Candor, the truth that nothing would be able to change that part of him was heard and, more importantly, believed."

The tall Candor took another step forward, voice firm but with a gentle timbre to it. "How are you feeling?"

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Teddy steeled himself before looking up to meet the man's eyes. "My ears hurt." He admitted. "And so does my head. I'd really like some water right now, actually. But I'm actually pretty happy to be here. The company’s not so bad."

Billy's chest tightened as Teddy's eyes came to rest on him during his last sentence, not wanting to hide the grin that answered Teddy's declaration. His dreams of growing old in the blue of Erudite, of years of discovery and research and the joy of knowledge, it all seemed dim and silly. Not when black and white and a messy head of blonde hair were in his future.

‘Fuck. I can’t have a crush on someone here already. Tommy would give me so much shit.’

Jean Paul caught the glance but turned back to Teddy. "And why did you choose Candor today?"

Teddy gave a tight smile, gripping his hands in his lap. "It's the only faction where I can just be Teddy, and not have to play a role."

After considering for a moment, their instructor nodded and motioned towards the empty spot on the couch. "Thank you for your honesty, Teddy. Have a seat." 

One after another, the other initiates were brought up. The Dauntless girl was the first to be presented with a cuff, scowling as Jean Paul asked what the scariest moment in her life was. "I don't get scared." She snapped. It had only taken moments before she had doubled over, clutching her right wrist to her chest in agony.

"We all have fears." Jean Paul corrected, "And with that cuff, anyone and everyone will be sure to ask the hardest question a Dauntless born can be asked, which is about what scares you. You can't keep up shields here. A lack of transparency means cowardice. We can't help you move past your fears unless you share. I'd suggest that you accustom yourself to answering that question correctly, as you'll be asked it regularly. And once that memory loses it's fear for you, you will have to answer with another fearsome memory. Honesty is not, at times, kind." Now. He steeled her with a look, voice calm as he asked. "What was the scariest moment of your life."

The Dauntless girl took a deep breath, shaking her thick, curly dark hair back before speaking. "When my mothers died when I was little. I was sure that they'd kick me out of the compound, and I'd have to live Factionless."

After an approving nod and a quiet 'Thank you for your honesty', the girl turned and sat down, the other two Dauntless born initiates were called up one by one, one trying to keep his fears to themselves while other tried to slip by with minor fears. In each case, the cuff picked up on the hesitation, until their truest fears were laid clear.

The process was brutal, as memories and thoughts that had been kept hidden so deeply were pulled to the surface and exposed to the light. Billy couldn't help the sigh of relief that left him as Jean Paul called up the sole Abnegation girl, one of only two transfers that year out of Abnegation. The other had gone Dauntless along with Tommy, the thought of his brother causing a sharp pain in Billy's throat. 'I hope he's not being a dumbass.'

The Abnegation girl walked with a quiet grace despite the voluminous robes that she wore. The head scarf that covered her hair marked her as one of the more religious Abnegation families, ones that held firmly but quietly to the idea of modesty. As she came to a stop in front of their instructor, Billy was struck by the look on his face.

Instead of the cocky sneer that he'd worn since he'd stepped into the room, his face had fallen for a moment and he looked pensive, almost sorrowful. The Abnegation girl seemed to notice as she tilted her head, but the look disappeared as soon as it came. "Right." Jean Paul murmured, reaching for a velvet box. "It's been awhile since we've had an Abnegation born initiate, much less in the same year with an Amity one."

He produced a silver ring, allowing her to slip it onto her finger herself. The action seemed out of character, as Jean Paul had shown no restraint in shredding what characteristics were left of their previous Factions. But here he was, respecting the customs of the orthodox Abnegation by not touching a woman that he wasn't related or married to. "Do you want to wear something besides your headscarf?" He asked, once the ring had slipped onto her finger. 

"No." She said smoothly, clasping her hands in front of her as she bowed her head to their instructor. "I like the concept of covering myself, and of modesty. In fact, I find it to be freeing."

The ring stayed quiet on her finger, marking her words as truth. Jean Paul's eyebrows went up, but continued, asking simply, "What do you want?"

Her foot tapped the ground as she said in the same cool voice, "I wish to help others in the capacity as a Candor." By the end of the sentence, her right hand was quivering as her face went pale, swallowing down the pain. 

Jean Paul took another step towards her, voice more gentle than it had been with the rest of them. "I didn't ask what you've been taught. I asked what you want. Not your parents, not your family, not your community. You."

"To speak freely." She gasped as the pain abated. "I. I want to be able say as I wish because I wish it and because what I say is true and has merit."

"That was said like a Candor. Thank you for your honesty." he said. "I'll see what I can do about getting you black and white scarves.” The Abnegation girl gave him a small smile as she strode back to her chair, sitting as regally as a queen. 

“Now.” Jean Paul boomed, grinning widely as he turned to look at Billy. “Come join me, Erudite boy who already has a Candor smart mouth.” 

Teddy had sat down right next to Billy, a solid warmth that seeped from the spot where there arms brushed against each other and Billy really didn’t want to leave his spot. But he did, his footsteps careful and slow as he walked towards their instructor. Jean Paul had picked up a headband, the metal of it cool against Billy’s forehead and temples as it was clipped on. “Tell me, Erudite boy. What do you feel about the use of electro shock conversion therapy on the homosexual community?”

Billy bit down on his lower lip, voice hot as he spat out, “The data shown on the subject has been conclusive on the veracity-” 

Pain shot through his temples, damn near bringing him to his knees. His ears rang as he leaned on the table, shaking his head from side to side in a desperate attempt to make his ears stop. “I’m not even allowed to make my point?!” He growled, gripping at the edge of the table with white knuckles. “How is that truth? I was going to say how I felt, but the data needed to be presented-”

“You did not hear the question.” Jean Paul growled, holding up a finger to silence Billy. “I asked what you believe. Not what the data showed from whatever studies the Erudite have done, not on the sociological basis of the work that has been compiled or on the case studies. I asked what you believe. The Erudite-born initiates hide their own truth behind the truth of what can be measured and what has been. That is not transparency, that is a crutch. So I’ll ask you again. What do you feel about the usage of electroshock conversion therapy for homosexuality?”

“It’s bullshit!” He exclaimed, cheeks flushed. “It doesn’t make any sense and there is absolutely no good data either scientifically or from personal reasoning that has shown anything different.” 

Jean Paul nodded as he took a step back. “Thank you for your honesty.” He said, voice almost too smooth. “You are more than welcome to, and in fact encouraged, to back up your claims and points. However, your feelings on the matter must be said up front, to ensure that they aren’t hidden behind data. I’m sure that this is likely the first you’ve ever been encouraged to do this, but you will need to think with your gut as opposed to just your brain for this initiation. Sit.”

His stomach heaved with every step as Billy stumbled towards the couch, slumping against the comforting bulk of Teddy as he waited for the roaring in his head to calm, trying to ignore how his sweat had soaked through his blue tshirt. The other Erudite initiate had learned from Billy, stammering out her response and avoiding the shock. Erudite were nothing but fast learners, after all and Darcy had always been brutally honest.

Jean Paul began to pack the spare detectors into his pack, speaking quietly enough that they all had to lean in to catch what his words. “The devices you wear are lie detectors in general, beyond the special lies that they are built to look for. If you lie or deceive, you will pay for it. The Candor born initiates will be wearing chokers, though ones without your special upgrades. I wouldn’t be jealous of them, however. Candor children are taught to see the ’tells’ that people give off when they are lying, and as such, they can be very good liars. Until they are wearing the choker and have to answer their parents, friends and family about their indiscretions when they were young. Many parents have been waiting until this day to finally get an honest answer.”

Jean Paul smirked as he turned and began to gather up the spare devices, hands reverential as he packed each away into the briefcase. As he shut the briefcase, he turned, slipping a piece of paper onto the table behind him, eyes chilly as he gave each initiate a look. "There are seven of you here, and three rooms in this apartment. Split up amongst yourselves, I don't care where you sleep. But there are clothes that better suit your new Faction in the wardrobes and closets, and we expect you to dress accordingly. Abnegation-born, I will let it be known that your headscarf is to be allowed until a proper color is found. I've just left you with a map, which I suggest you all study well. The Merciless Mart is large, and very easy to get lost in." 

With an easy grace, Jean Paul took the briefcase in hand, taking a moment to check the clock on the wall. "You have an hour until dinner. You'll all be expected in the cafeteria then." A smirk crossed his face. "And I'm sure the Candor will give you a warm welcome."


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is NOTHING more frustrating that having a story knock at your head and demand to be let free, and have your computer die on you. But now I have it and it is good. More notes at the end.

Eli had been minding his own business.  He'd been lacing up his new boots and decidedly not looking up at the half naked people shamelessly milling around the barracks.  And despite the fact that his patience seemed strung tight enough to be liable to snap, he was keeping calm.

 

He had Abnegation to thank for that.  To put others' needs ahead of yours in all things required no small amount of self control over one's own base instincts.  But while that grace had seemed to come easily to the full initiates, it had never seemed to settle so well on Eli's shoulders.

 

Not when he had to help his Grandfather eat or bathe or even dress himself.  Eli could still remember how strong his grandfather's arms had been as he would wordlessly move to help another Abnegation member with their heavy loads or how deftly he was able to help with the Amity harvest.  But that had been before a Factionless man, crazed on drugs or his own loneliness, had smashed a rock into the back of Grandpa's head.

 

His grandfather had kept the same steady peacefulness once he'd woken from his coma, but the spasms that would overtake him would leave him liable to drop whatever he held.  Eli still felt pangs whenever he heard his grandfather's quiet chuckle, so different from the full bellied roar that it had been before the incident.

 

His grandparents had managed well enough by themselves, but Eli had moved into their spare room as his grandmother grew older and more frail.  The devastation that had been done to his grandfather seemed to ripple out into the house, from the patched up holes in the wall when the spasms became too much to the way that his grandmother now spoke to her husband, like a mother to a child.

 

Eli's temper, which had always existed before, grew like embers under a strong wind.  And it worsened each time he heard an Abnegation elder proudly tell his grandparents how true to their faction they had been when they had declined the death penalty to the Factionless man.  Everyone looked over his grandfather with pride, a martyr to their rules of selflessness.

 

A good Abnegation would have looked to his family's lack of thirst for vengeance with pride.  A good Abnegation would have taken strength from that show of mercy.  But Eli was not a good Abnegation boy.

 

He had been helping to pass supplies to the Factionless a few years back when one woman had become agitated, screaming and lashing out at one of the girls.  Eli didn't even have time to think before he barrelled in between them, shoving the woman back as fire sung through his veins and red filled his eyesight.  As a pair of sturdy arms grabbed him and hauled him off, his eyes had stayed glued to the woman as the Dauntless police force hauled her out of the line.

 

By the time that he'd been let go, his fury had only barely abated.  As he wheeled around to vent his unused aggression, the sight of who had drawn him away caught him dead in his tracks.  The leader of the Agnegation, Steve Rodgers, was known all over the city.  It was said that he was completely uncorruptible, the living ideal of Abnegation ideals and practices, but Eli knew that Steve had been present when his father had been attacked.  

 

The anger that had been building up unleashed like a dam after a hard rain and Eli had lashed out at the poster boy for the Faction that had let an attempted murderer continue to draw breath.  While Eli hadn't screamed, it had been a close thing as he spat out his anger from the uselessness of feeding people who did not deserve their help to the cowardice of not acting and letting someone else shoulder the weight of protecting innocent lives.

 

After all of his vitriol, Steve hadn't batted an eye.  He never looked away, his face never became pitying or patronizing.  He'd listened and once Eli had ran out of breath, he spoke with such grace and sincerity that Eli's anger finally dipped down.

 

"You're right."  He said, "And I'm sorry."

 

Steve began to visit Eli's grandparents after that.  Over a dinner that they had all helped to cook, the family would talk over their plain fare about the ideals of Abnegation and the tools used to open one's self up to the battery of the world without flinching.  As Steve spoke, Eli could see himself living in grays for the rest of his life, snug and safe in a cuccoon of community.

 

With a ragged breath, Eli stared down at his boots, halfway tied, and resumed lacing them up.  He had made his decision.  And his decision was Dauntless.  

 

Something warm and woolen smacked against his face and Eli scowled as the raucous laugh of the Erudite boy, Tommy, rang through the barracks.  "Dude, pay attention!"  He crowed, reaching over to snatch his sweater off of Eli's shoulder, his chest pale and unexpectedly solid.  

 

Eli stiffened as Tommy abruptly grabbed his shoulders and gave him a shake, his face taken over by a smile that seemed, frankly, demented.  "We're in the fucking Dauntless compound."  He said, speaking slowly and enunciating as though Eli was stupid.  "And you are bringing me down with this whole Stiff quiet bullshit that you're pulling.  It's party time, man.  Show it."

 

After having to call out every ounce of self control that Eli had carefully cultivated, he managed to not slap Tommy's hands off of him, instead giving the Erudite a glare that could peel paint.  He'd been about bite out a retort when Kate's voice rang out.

 

"Tommy, I'm pretty sure that if you don't get your hands off of Eli, he will kick your ass."

 

With a dramatic sigh, Tommy stepped back with his hands held up in the air.  "That's what I get for trying to lighten the mood in here?  You people are seriously no fun."

 

Eli shot a look over to Kate, intending to give her a nod of thanks but instead quickly averted his eyes once he realized that she, like Tommy, wasn't wearing a shirt.  "Whatever."  He ground out.

 

“Aw, isn’t that sweet?”  Tommy hooted as he back in, too damned close for Eli’s comfort.  “Look at the Stiff, all awkward the second he seems some boob.  Or wait, is it just the boobs?  Or could it be this fine example of Erudite man in front of him?”

 

Saved only by Kate’s quick intervention, Tommy yowled as he was yanked back by his ear.  Kate shot Eli a wink, a grin wide on her face.  “Now Tommy, let the Abnegation be.  If he doesn’t want to look at your scrawny chest, I can’t say that I blame him.”

 

Santo’s snigger was barely heard over Tommy’s complaints as Kate hauled him off, their antics distracting everyone enough that Eli was finally able to slip his shirt off and replace it with the slink black tank top that he’d been given.  He shrugged his jacket on almost as quickly in an attempt to fight off the chill of the subterranean rock walls that lined the walls of the barracks.

 

The outside born initiates had been separated from those born in Dauntless almost immediately.  Their scarred instructor had informed them that it was to keep the Dauntless born from killing the outside born in training but from Eli’s vantage point, the Dauntless born hadn’t seemed to be all that tough.  Cocky, yes.  Willing to put on a good show, definitely.  But their faces were too bright and excited to be able to take on the enormity of the role that they had chosen to undertake, and Eli had disregarded them quickly.

 

He’d been tempted to do the same with the outside born, but he couldn’t seem to be able to.  For one, Santo was built like a brick house.  If he hit someone, they were going down, and Eli wasn’t excited to try out that theory.  And Tommy, for all that he was an incredible dumbass, had great reflexes and a speed that made Eli reluctant to try to pin down.

 

And then there was Kate.  

 

She didn’t look like much, at least in the sense of looking fit to fight.  But Eli had caught the look on her face when one of the Erudite born had tried to make a pass, and that level of calculation alone was enough to make him reevaluate her.

 

There was another pair of Candor, Kate had informed him that the girl had made up her mind on Dauntless and that the boy wasn’t well suited to Dauntless but he’d made the decision to follow her.  The ones that concerned Eli, however, where the big boned Erudite who were swaggering around the barracks as though they’d built it themselves.  

 

Eli knew the type.  Erudite members were brilliant, but they had a terrible habit of being both overly cocky and selfish.  These were the types of Erudite who felt their own superiority as certainly as the ground beneath their feet.  While not one for needless violence, Eli couldn’t blame Tommy for the furious looks he’d shoot at them.

 

If anyone here would cause trouble, it would be them.  And Eli would be prepared.

 

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They hadn't been more than five steps out the door of their apartment before a heavyset woman strode over to stand in front of Teddy.  Her grin was wicked as she put her hands on her hips, very effectively blocking their way.  "Amity boy, I have a question for you."  She said in a singsong voice.

 

Teddy froze like a rabbit that had just caught sight of a wolf.  "Um.  Alright?"

 

"Do I look fat in this dress?"

 

Teddy's face went ashen as he stared at her, gripping his fists into the smooth fabric of his dark wool trousers.  His mother's voice was gentle in his ear and he could almost feel the antiseptic spray on his eyebrow as she fixed him up.  "Everyone is fighting their own battle inside themselves."  She'd explained over the weeping of the new transfer initiate that had lashed out at Teddy.  "You have two choices.  To fuel the violence, or to soothe it."

 

The Amity said kind things to each other.  And whether or not those words were true was beside the point.  But the throbbing in Teddy's ear from the cuffs was a constant reminder that if he was going to be kind, he was also going to have to be honest.  He looked at her, desperately trying to find some part of her that didn't make her fat bulge out like a dough rising in a pan, but he couldn't.  The dress was just too small, and really not flattering.

 

Without thinking, he tried to step around her and keep going.  He just wasn't ready yet to do this, and his heart beat hard as he wished that she would just realize that he couldn't do this yet and take pity, but no such luck.  She got up in his face, eyes piercing into him as he tried to look at anything else.  "Do I look fat in this dress."  She said, voice low and measured.

 

"Yes."  He finally forced out, shame pouring into him as he shut his eyes, not able to bear the crushed look on her face or the pain that would inevitably come from his words.

 

"Amity.  Look at me."

 

Teddy finally opened his eyes, realizing belatedly that he'd crossed his arms over his chest in self defense.  He'd expected to see pain and anger and apologies rose to his lips but.

 

She was smiling.  She was actually smiling at him, and even laughed a little.  "I know I look like shit in this dress.  That's why I wore it, just so I could ask you how I looked in it.  And see?  You told me the truth and I am just fine."  

 

Her hand was gentle on Teddy's cheek as she gave him a quick pat, skin smooth and soft.  "Trust us.  We're tougher than we look."  

 

She had began to move away when Teddy cleared his throat and called after her, "I still think you look pretty.  Just not in that dress."

 

The woman turned, waiting for the shock of electricity that never came over Teddy.  "That was truth!"  The smile that bloomed over her face was bright and delighted and above all, felt more real than Teddy thought that he'd seen before.

 

"Thank you for your honesty, sweet thing."

 

Billy nudged Teddy with his elbow as the woman finally left and the initiates resumed their search for the Candor cafeteria.  "I really thought you were going to get zapped there."

 

"Believe me, so did I.  That whole 'Merciless Mart' nickname is making more and more sense by the minute."  He watched Billy nod feverishly out of the corner of his eye, trying to bite down on his amusement of how animated some of the Erudite's facial expressions were, until he noticed that Billy wasn't really looking at him.

 

"Hey."  Teddy muttered, scuffing his fancy new loafers against the floor.  "I wanted to apologize for earlier."

 

"Apologize for what?"  Billy squawked, finally looking at Teddy.

 

"For when you came in when I was changing."  Teddy said, taking deep breath.  "I uh, kind of forgot that not every faction is like Amity with that whole clothes thing."

 

Contrary to what the other factions might think, the Amity were not nudists.  After all, they did serious manual labor and it was common sense to know that covering your delicate parts was a good idea when moving through brush and crops.  And of course, they always made sure to respect the wishes and needs of the other factions when they were around and covered up appropriately.

 

Still, Amity children tended to run around out clothes as often as they did with them and it wasn't a surprise to see someone grab their dinner in only a towel, fresh from the communal baths.  No one seemed to mind and from early on, you learned where it was appropriate to look and when you should politely avert your eyes.  Amity was comfortable and safe, and no matter how many stretch marks or love handles or bony knees or scars someone had, they were shown love and acceptance for all that they were. Shame in your body just didn't need to be a part of an Amity's life.

 

So when Billy had burst into their small two bedroom room, blue eyes shining with the news that the computer system that had been set up in the living room had an awesome game on it, Teddy hadn't given a second thought to taking his towel off of his waist and using it to dry his hair.  He'd been about to gush about how freaking awesome the shower was when he saw Billy's face and specifically, where he was staring.

 

Billy had abruptly left the room and hadn't come back in for a few minutes, which gave Teddy plenty of time to pull on pants, a white short sleeved button up shirt that just barely went over his broad shoulders and a pair of black suspenders.  By the time that Billy had come back in, his pale face was still beet red and he seemed to determined to look at anywhere else in the room besides Teddy.

 

Billy stayed quiet for a moment as they continued walking down the labyrinthine halls, finally saying, "It surprised me, I'll be honest.  It's not like the Erudite are prudes like the Abnegation or anything, but uh.  We usually like our privacy for stuff like um.  That. And it's not like I saw anythi-hngh!"  Billy grunted, letting out a quick cough as the metal on his forehead hummed and he had to backtrack hard, "Okay, so I did definitely see things!  But it's fine.  You don't need to worry about it.  I swear."

 

Teddy let out a deep breath that he hadn't been aware that he'd been holding, giving Billy a sunny smile.  "Great."  He said, unable to hide the relief in his voice.  "I was kind of worried that I lost the only friend I had in this place."

 

"You'd have to be a lot uglier for that."  Billy said helpfully.  "Maybe hiding a second nose or something under there."

 

He couldn't help laughing, tapping his nose.  "I just have the one.  I swear."

 

"Oh believe me, I know.  I definitely know."

 

They shared a grin and Teddy again thanked any higher power that he actually had a friend here.  The fact that he'd made a friend who thought the Faction leaders and their exploits were just as cool as Teddy did was definitely a bonus and if he was to be honest, the fact that he looked adorable when explaining something didn't hurt either.

 

As the group of outside born initiates made their way through the halls, Candors seemed to be coming from all directions to ask them questions.  Teddy had been forced to tell three separate people that they looked fat and to his complete horror, had needed to tell a wizened old woman that she looked like a raisin.  The Abnegation girl, who shared that her name was Sooraya, was forced to talk about herself, something that made her seem to want to crawl into her gray headscarf and baggy black waistcoat that Teddy had given her from his own closet to compensate for not being able to wear her gray robes.  The Dauntless girl, named America, refused to look anyone in the eye as she recited her fear when she'd lost her mothers.  However, that fear had quickly lost it's hold and soon she was sharing that she was terrified of moths, hated going down steep hills and had nightmares of waking up in a different world.  The other Dauntless hadn't fared so well, quaking and sweating as they fought the truth and were shocked as a result.

 

Darcy, the other Erudite transfer, was holding her own.  Her answers were blunt, said in a drawling voice so calm and laid back that the Candor were falling over themselves to try to get her mad and more likely to screw up.  Billy, on the other hand, was not doing as well.  

 

The Candor were peppering him with questions about what he thought about recently published Erudite studies and his tendency to lay out the facts first kept getting him into trouble as his hands began to tremble uncontrollably from the repeated shocks.  "Fine!"  He finally yelled.  "Yes, I just believe that the sun is a star!  No, I have not been to the star and no I have not touched it and yes, I know that some people think that the sun is some celestial being even though the idea is completely stupid!"

 

By the end of his diatribe, he was red faced and furious, but the Candor around him had simply smiled, bowed their heads and thanked him for his honesty.  To which Billy just looked over at Teddy and stared wide eyed, shaking his head.

 

The smell of food wafting out from the cafeteria seemed like a beacon of safety as the crowds that dogged them finally dispersed and got into line.  Teddy tried not to stare too badly, but it was hard not to.  The Amity homesteads were meant to be cozy, warm and welcoming, all dark wood and low ceilings that made you relax from the moment you stepped inside.  But this room seemed designed to do the exact opposite.

 

The ceiling was absurdly high, flanked by  huge windows that let in the light from the sunset outside and the voices of the Candor eating and discussing bounced of the high ceiling and boomed throughout the room.  The cafeteria was a cacophony of people and arguments and debates and Teddy suddenly wanted nothing more than to run home to Amity, curl into his dark bunk bed in his dark room and hide.  

 

While America, Billy and Darcy seemed to take the cafeteria in stride, none of them seemed to be as overwhelmed as he was.  It wasn't until Sooraya met his eyes, her mouth pursed and eyebrows raised, that Teddy realized he wasn't entirely alone in this.

 

"How can they stand the noise in here?"  He muttered to her as the line slowly ushered them towards the servers.  

 

"I can not say that I have any idea."  She responded, eyes wide as she looked at corkboard that held up a menu.  "Nor do I understand why they feel the need to offer such exotic fare.  Some of these dishes look to be mostly garnish, though why someone would waste the time seems entirely silly.  I'm not sure what half of the ingredients even are."

 

"And almost everything has meat in it."  Teddy said, voice mournful.  "The only thing that looks vegan is the salad."  

 

They shared look of disappointment and confusion, but Teddy couldn't stop from cracking up when she said with certainty, "This Faction is crazy."

 

However they have felt about their current faction, Sooraya and Teddy had both woken up that morning in Factions that believed strongly in shutting up and being polite when someone gives you something and they accepted with their food with grace, even taking bowls of something cold that the cafeteria worker proudly informed them was 'ice cream'.  The more daunting part was turning, seeing the huge expanse of tables and trying to decide where to sit.

 

Thankfully, America seemed to have no lack of confidence as she made her way towards a table against the wall, the outside initiates following in her wake like baby ducks.  She sat down heavily, staring at her food with furrowed brows.  "It's so... healthy."

 

Darcy and Billy shared a look before Darcy let out a snort, digging in with gusto as she spoke through a full mouth of food.  "You're all crazy.  This is delicious!  Try living on Erudite meal replacement bars because your parents are too distracted by their research to cook."

 

Billy bobbed his head, looking about ready to chime in when a boy their age slid into the empty chairs at their table.  "Okay, so."  He put his hands on the table and leaned forward, his gelled hair slicked into a neat, small fauxhawk.  "Welcome to Candor and all that-"

 

"Victor Borkowski!"

 

The boy blanched, his skinny frame drooping into his chair as he turned to face the stern looking Latina woman who was fixing him with a hard look.

 

"Um, hi Mrs. Vaccaro, you're looking-"

"It was you and Santo who spilled oil on the lobby floor last summer, wasn't it?"

 

His hand flew up to the collar around his neck as he fidgeted, finally admitting, "Yes ma'am.  That was our idea."

 

The woman gave him a smirk, pinching one of his cheeks.  "Little shits.  I knew it was you two.  You listen to me, the next time I see that boy, he is going to need that Dauntless training because he is going to get it!  Also, if you want to send anything to Santo, you let me know and I'll bring it to him on visiting day, mm?"  

 

"Yes ma'am."  Victor said dutifully, giving her a sheepish smile as she stalked off.  Once she was out of earshot, he sagged and let his head thump against the table.  "This sucks so bad."

 

The table went quiet as they stared at the newcomer.  Billy finally grinned and ran a hand through his messy bangs, palm brushing against the  band around his forehead before motioning to Teddy with a nod.  "Teddy had to tell an old lady that she looks like a raisin and America had to admit that she's scared of moths.  And I had to actually address that I don't actually know for a fact that  evolution exists.  So yeah, this has been pretty shitty."

 

"A raisin?  That is freaking amazing.  My name's Victor, by the way, but call me Vic.  Candor born, if you couldn't tell from the freaking shock collar around my neck.  I'm ready to go down to the Dauntless compound, grab Santo and drag him come back up here, I'm getting all of the blame for stuff that he did too."  His nose scrunched, but he picked up his fork as he began eating.  "Anyway.  Who do they have teaching you guys?"

 

"Jean Paul Beaubier was the one who gave us our devices, if that's what you mean?"  Sooraya said, face brightening a bit as she tried the ice cream.

 

"No way."  He let out a huff, the extent of his misery all over his face.  "That is so not fair.  JP's awesome.  The Candor born just got Monet, and she's cool and all but she's terrifying.  I thought she was actually going to kill someone-"  He flinched, tugging as his collar as it hummed, "Come on, I can't even use figures of speech now?  Anyway.  You guys got seriously lucky."

 

"Are you kidding me?"  America snorted, "That guy is brutal."

 

Teddy watched, more than a bit confused, as Billy looked over to Darcy with an arched eyebrow.  She shrugged in response before giving him a small grin, like some strange kind of Erudite code language.  She leaned forward, giving Victor a wide, casual grin.  "So.  What do you know about him?"

 

Victor only snorted.  "Nope, no way.  I don't get to tell you his story. Candor don't tell each others truths, just our own.  If you want data or whatever, you have to ask him." 

 

Undaunted, Darcy smiled prettily at Vic, her voice sweet as syrup, "C'mon, you can tell us something about him.  His whole life can't be that private."

 

After shoving a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth, Vic just shook his head.  "Nope."

 

Billy let out a soft sigh, rubbing his thumb idly against his lower lip and Teddy suddenly found that he couldn't look away.  His world seemed to focus solely on just how pale Billy's skin was and how flushed and red his lips were.  "Victor."  He said, voice smooth and disturbingly beguiling, "Can't you tell us anything?"

 

Teddy's mind had completely shorted out by the time that Billy pouted, but at least he wasn't the only one.  Vic's voice stammered as he spoke, finally breaking the spell over Teddy as he looked over at the Candor born.  "Um.  They say that he only got shocked three times when he was an initiate.  But really, that's all I can say, it's... kind of the rules."

 

"Three times?"  Darcy hissed out.  "How?  I'm doing better than anyone here and I've already been shocked 4 times, and it's only the first night.  How did he manage that?"

 

Victor shrugged, taking another bite of food.  "No idea.  He's just... honest, I guess.  He was born to be Candor."

 

"And yet."  Sooraya frowned, slipping her hands into her borrowed peacoat.  "I do not think he was born into the Faction."

 

Billy perked up, finally not running his thumb over his lip, much to Teddy's dismay.  "Why do you say that?"

 

"I am not sure."  She admitted, shrugging slightly.  "Call it intuition, I suppose."

 

Victor promptly began to shovel food into his mouth, darting up and out of his chair as he grabbed his tray.  "And I gotta go, please don't ask me things that I really can't answer, have a good night!"

 

As they watched him scamper off, America narrowed her eyes.  "What was that about, I wonder?"

 

"If I was to hypothesize."  Darcy said with a drawl, "I would guess that Sooraya's intuition was right."

 

"But what faction?"  Teddy scooted his chair in, leaning in to try to keep their conversation quiet.

 

"Dauntless, probably."  Billy snorted, following Teddy's lead as he leaned in.  "No one else is that scary."

 

"No."  America speared her fork into the poached fish on her plate as though planting a flag.  "No tattoos, no piercings.  Besides, he doesn't look like the type to have ever gotten his hands dirty and you don't go a day in the Dauntless compound without getting a little roughed up.

 

"Well.  He couldn't be Abnegation, much less Amity."  Teddy offered.  "He's too cocky for either faction, I think."

 

Sooraya nodded in response to Teddy, leaving Billy and Darcy to look at each other.  "He could have been Erudite."  Darcy finally said.  "You know what they say about Erudite, how we - I mean, they can be cold.  And that suits him."

 

Billy bit at his lip, finally brightening as he looked around the table.  "You know what this means, right?"

 

America crossed her arms as she leaned back in her chair.  "Nope."

 

Billy wriggled in his seat, face bright and eager and Teddy couldn't look away.  "This means we have something to study."

 

Teddy tried to hide the grin that came over his face by scraping up the rest of his ice cream.  “You are kind of a dork, did you know that?”

 

He was met with a grin back as Billy gave him a mock salute.  “Born into dorkdom, no way around it.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

As the wind whistled through the boughs of the apple orchard, Xavin dug her fingers into the dark, fertile earth behind her for grounding and turned her face to the starlit sky.  Around her, bonfires crackled as the Amity sang and danced, a hum of activity and joy as the initiates, stumbling and seeing how the earth moved weaved around them, breathed deep and learned what it meant to be Amity.

 

As the drops had been dropped into Xavin’s mouth, the Amity leader had pressed gentle kiss to her forehead.  She’d tried to dart back at first, startled by that intimate of a touch, but as the line of Amity elders came by Xavin, she stopped being surprised.  The world had begun to swim around her, colors becoming brighter than she’d ever seen as lips and gentle touches graced her forehead, cheeks and sometimes, lips.

 

But none of them were right.  None of them were the lips that Xavin wanted.  None were the right ones and instead of going and getting what she wanted, as all Dauntless born would do, Xavin couldn’t move from her spot in the dirt.

 

Sun gleamed in the corner of her eyes, radiating so brightly against the faint light of the moon and bonfires and Xavin wanted to cry at the beautiful face that had finally found her.  Karolina.  Finally.

 

Xavin had fallen in love with her from the moment she set eyes on the tall, willowy blonde Amity.  And somehow, despite her looks, Karolina was also brave and smart and gentle and so perfect that Xavin thought at times that she would burst from love at the sight of her.  The only choice that Xavin had was Karolina and had been for years.   And now they were finally together and Xavin was rooted to the ground and completely, unavoidably able to move.

 

Karolina walked with her typically sylphic grace, her limbs long and lithe and so unlike Xavin’s small, dark powerful arms that for a moment, in her drug addled mind, Xavin thought that they had finally taken on the forms meant for each other.  Karolina had surely become a beech tree, bright and silvered against the night and Xavin had become shrubbery, to be contented with basking in her shade.

 

She could deal with that, Xavin knew.  She could pine forever, so long as she was able to watch her, to keep her safe and keep her happy.  Even if she never saw Xavin or even knew who she was, Xavin had fallen as far as she could.

 

Her breath caught in her chest as Karolina turned, seeming to spot Xavin as she sat in the ground and, mercy upon mercies, glided up to her with a smile so bright that Xavin could weep.  

 

“Do you know that you are loved?”  Karolina asked, voice so sweet that Xavin could swear that she could taste the nectar of each word.  The phrase was the same that she’d heard from each Amity that Xavin had encountered, each bestowing the words with such grace and kindness that it had made her feel hideously awkward until whatever had been in the eyedropper had come into effect.

 

Tomorrow, Xavin would be horrified to remember that she had begun to cry, but to hear Karolina say those words conjured up too much emotion to be taken with a stoic face.  Karolina, just as drugged as Xavin but so much better, had seen the tears against the bonfire light as she rushed up, closer than Xavin had even dreamed in her nights alone in the Dauntless compound.  “I’m so sorry!”  She breathed out, clasping her hands around Xavin’s face before wiping away her tears, “I didn’t mean to make you cry, oh, I’m so sorry!”  

 

The roots that had tethered Xavin to the ground released their hold and her fingers were cold with wet dirt as she lifted them, just barely brushing them over Karolina’s face as the fear of dirtying her beauty scared Xavin more than anything.  “You are so beautiful.”  She whispered, finally.  “The most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  Whether I’m loved or not, I can’t even care, as long as long as you know that you are.”

 

Karolina stared down at Xavin with dilated pupils, moth frozen for a moment in a perfect ‘O’ shape before her lower lip quivered.  “Oh.”  She breathed out, moisture gathering in her eyes and Xavin was suddenly furious with herself that she should have to cry like that.  She’d even opened her mouth, begun to apologize when lips surged against hers, petal soft but strong.  Karolina’s long fingers wrapped around the back of her neck, thumbs swiping against her cheekbones as she collapsed into Xavin’s lap.

 

She tasted like a mountain stream should, bright and clean and pure enough to make your teeth hurt and Xavin fell into the kiss like a drowning woman who could do nothing but continue to drink her fill.

 

\----------------------------

Lou, for the first time in years, was content.

 

He had selected Abnegation, that much he knew.  He’d woken up to the gentle face of a blonde, statuesque woman who introduced herself as Carol and was informed that he’d selected to have his memories put to the side to better embrace the way of selflessness, and for that he was already grateful. 

 

If Lou had remembered, he might tell you why Amity had lost it’s appeal for him.  He might have told you how he wished that the Amity members would tell him about the unpleasant parts of his mother, who died giving birth to him and he desperately wanted to know. He might tell you about how his father was never right after after his shining, wonderful older brother had caught a virus and died.  He might tell you about how his father would come home, drunk on hard cider and how his fists had broken ribs and shattered Lou’s heart.  He may have told you how hard it was to see the Amity accept his excuses for his bruises and accept the prettier lie that Lou was a clumsy child.  He might have even, maybe, told you how hard it hurt him that the Amity had cast his father out without any help once he’d been seen hitting Lou.

 

He might have.  But he wouldn’t.  And now, he couldn’t.

 

He couldn’t say why he felt like he’d been stretched in for so long and that the piece of cutting vegetables and preparing a large dinner with the rest of his shy, gentle fellow initiates had seemed like a benediction.  But it did feel so good to work with others and the stew was smelling incredible as it wafted through the Central building’s kitchens.

 

It smelled like home and peace, and Lou wanted to wrap himself in gray and stay in the peace of the night forever.

 

\----------------------------------

 

Eli let out a laugh, a deep bellied joyful one, as he was lifted into the air by the older Dauntless.  The chant of their faction’s name echoed through the underground cafeteria, wild and joyous and everything that Abnegation wasn’t and could never be.  And that joy was echoed in the faces of the initiates around him as they were welcomed.

 

He finally felt as though he’d come home.

 

\-----------------------------

 

After filling their dark room with endless discussions over the tales that they’d both loved, a comfortable silence finally butted it’s way into the small Candor room and Teddy smiled to himself.

 

“Hey Billy?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I’m really glad that you chose Candor.  I was seriously freaked that I wasn’t going to like anyone here.”

 

Billy’s bedsheets rustled as he sat him, pale skin illuminated against the moonlight and his dark hair mussed and irrefutably gorgeous.

 

“I’m glad you’re here too.”

 

\-----------------------------

 

David let out a hoot as Gert’s answer to the riddle went through, a wide wild grin on his face as his fingers flew over the keys of the computer terminal, nudging and fixing the code as he went to make it behave as it properly should.  For all that he was exhausted, having to sort through the riddles and brain teasers that kept the Erudite initiates locked in this room had been more challenging and rewarding than anything he’d seen.  It was nothing short of brilliant to be able to stretch his mind and solve something with other people who understood and were sometimes better at thinking things through.  A display came up onto the screen, asking only, “WHAT ARE WE?”

 

Jonas cocked his head, a Candor born initiate who, despite his complete lack of tact, possessed a beautifully logical mind.  “Smart, perhaps?  It is simple, but we surely must be reaching the end of this.”

 

“Nah.”  Chase said, scrunching his nose as he ran a hand through his shaggy blonde hair.  “That seems way too easy.  If they’re testing us, I don’t see why they’d be making it easy all of a sudden.”

 

Gert frowned from her chair, locking eyes with David.  “Am I the only one thinking of what Instructor Frost would say?”

 

“That the simplest answer is usually the best?  Of course!”  He exclaimed, turning to the keyboard as he typed in ‘ERUDITE’ and hit the enter key with a flourish.  

 

The walls around them creaked, and then slowly sunk into the floor, leaving the initiates surrounded by Erudite and blue who were cheering and clapping their hands.  Tony Stark, an admittedly handsome man with pale skin and salt and pepper dark hair, strode forward with his hands wide.  “Congratulations, and quickly done, initiates.  Welcome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who have already read Divergent and might be confused with my take on the Factions, I'll warn you. It's only going to get more AU. I love and respect Veronica Roth's world, but the ending and the 'twist!' about what was beyond the wall just struck me as... meh. So I'm going to be changing that a bit in this world.
> 
> Also, if anyone can tell me what Lou's superhero name is in the Marvel Universe, you will have my eternal adoration and love.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More notes at the end. Also, the first person who comments with the superhero name of Lou from Chapter 2 gets a mention of their marvel character of choice in the next chapter. Because seriously people, does no one know him?!

The converted warehouse that served as the initiate's training gym was filled with the wet sound of Kessler's fists slamming into the quiet Candor boy's face and Tommy was pissed.

Kessler hadn't fucking shut up once about Billy, constantly throwing cracks about pansy wristed faggots whenever Tommy was in range and the sight of Kessler beating on a kid who couldn't fight back was more than enough to drive Tommy up a wall.

The second that their instructor had stepped out of the room, Kessler had starting making cracks about Alani, the Candor girl that had joined with her boyfriend. Maxwell, obviously, hadn't taken well to that and when Kessler offered to spar with him, Max had stupidly taken him up on the offer. And now, everyone was just watching him get beat to a pulp and Tommy couldn't stand it.

So he ran. It was what he did, honestly. Billy used to muse that Tommy was driven by an innate need to escape Erudite's stifling structure, but Tommy never cared about the reasons. All he knew was that running laps was the only thing that made his mind finally shut up. Besides, things always got to be so much and just sticking around was way too much work than he was willing to invest. Running away was just easier.

As he headed into the tunnels around the warehouse, Tommy finally let himself stop once the sounds of Kessler's douchebaggery had left his ears, leaving him to slump against the rock wall and let the coolness of the stone leech the heat from his body. The sounds of footfalls made Tommy groan, but apathy had now set in and he couldn't give enough of a fuck to move.

Eli was breathing harder than Tommy was, a fact that he noted with no small of pride. "Are you kidding me?" Eli sneered. "You just ran away?"

Tommy's hands tightened into fists as Eli got right up into his space, his severe face twisted into an expression of disgust. "So? What was I supposed to do, just hang around and watch Kessler beat someone into the ground? Old news, man. Been there, done that, gave it a one star review. Boring."

"Bullshit." Eli's jaw tightened as he leaned in closer. "You're being a coward, that's what it is. If you didn't like something with the fight, there was nothing to stop you from stepping in."

"There was nothing stopping you either! Well, nothing except for the fact that you're gagging for it from our instructor. Seriously dude, it's getting really pathetic to see you around him. 'Yes sir, no sir, can I please, please suck your dick sir, you're just soooo cool-"

Eli's hand was hot as a brand as he shoved Tommy back against the wall, face twisted into an expression of fury. "You can go ahead and shut the hell up right now. What is this, you're trying to piss me off now to get away from the fact that you just ran off with your tail between your legs?"

Tommy's cheeks were fire red now with pent up anger and frustration. He was going insane in the compound, not able to go out and see sunlight and surrounded by people that he didn't really like and he was just about ready to snap. "Has anyone ever told you that you talk way too much?"

Eli spoke through clenched teeth as he leaned forward, itching for a fight just as much as Tommy was. "Then make me shut up."

Something in Tommy snapped at that as he lunged forward, teeth cracking against Eli's as he kissed him. This bastard was such a dick and patronizing and he was so similar to David but he just wasn't right and Tommy poured that fury and disgust and regret and anger into the kiss. Besides, the idea of a guy kissing another guy was something that should freak an Abnegation out more than any kind of violence Tommy could dole out.

Eli had gone slack in surprise at first and once Tommy was satisfied that he'd made his point and pulled back, Eli had surged against him in a move that made Tommy's mind short out from both shock and no small amount of sexual frustration.

While his cognitive thinking had left him, his body was still clearly capable of taking action as his fingers settled around Eli's hips with a cruel grip and pulled him in closer. His legs had parted when Eli insistently nudged on his leg in between them and Tommy rocked against his thigh, feeling greedy and needy and finally, not thinking about Kessler.

When Eli pulled back, Tommy's mind still hadn't really come back to him as he started at the Stiff with wide eyes. "That?" Eli panted, eyes wide and horrified. "Will never happen again. Ever."

As Eli stalked off, Tommy let momentum take him down to the ground. The cool wall felt even better now against his heated skin and his racing mind threatened to overwhelm him as Tommy closed his eyes and scrubbed at his face with his hands.

"Fuck." He hissed. "Fuuuck."

\--------------------

Something was wrong with Teddy.

At first, he'd excused his grouchiness as the fault of a headache. And Billy could understand that. After all, Jean Paul had begun to teach them how to read body language in order to catch when someone else was lying, and the coursework was almost up to Erudite quantity. But the fact that his hands had started to shake and the difficulty that Teddy had begun having when selecting words were pointing to something more than just exhaustion.

Billy had finally had to ask to speak with Jean Paul privately as he laid out the symptoms that Teddy was having and though the Candor had clearly been ready to disregard the concern entirely, the sheer amount of data that Billy had collected had finally seemed to sway him as he gave his word that he'd look into it.

When Jean Paul had entered their classroom the next day, he'd headed straight for Teddy's desk. Teddy had looked up at him with exhausted eyes and gaped as Jean Paul handed him a small roll.

"Amity bread?" He asked, brows knit in confusion as he looked down at the roll in his hands. "I'm. I'm not sure... Is this a trick?" He asked.

"I would be much happier if it was." Jean Paul's lips pursed as he crossed his arms. "But, as it turns out, the Amity have begun to put their peace serum in their bread in to keep their Faction 'sweet' and a sudden withdrawal from it, like you've experienced, can be highly dangerous. The Amity had sent a few of their bread over to us when you first chose us, but we were unaware as to why."

Billy had helped his mother a bit when she'd studied the use of peace serum on people that had been through trauma. Of the serums that the Factions used, from the memory serum that the Abnegation used to the fear serum that the Dauntless used in training to the truth serum that the Candor had, it seemed to be the most innocuous. Serotonin and dopamine inhibitors were the main component, with cannabinoids and benzodiazepines in the mix to keep the patient calm and placid when aggression popped up.

However, Billy also knew from his mother that withdrawals, especially from benzos after long term use, were seriously dangerous. His mother had noted in her study that sudden withdrawals commonly caused neurological symptoms like Teddy's, not to mention a high risk of stroke.

Teddy shook his head, putting the roll down on the desk as he held his hands up above his head, face twisted and flushed. "No way. There is no way that the Amity could have been drugging us that long. Kids eat Amity bread, there's no way they'd put us in that much danger."

"Theodore." Jean Paul said, voice sharp and firm. "What wouldn't Amity do to fulfill their goal of peace?"

Billy had to chew on his pen to keep from saying something as Teddy looked down at the roll. He looked shattered and tired, worn down to the nub. "Nothing." His voice was soft, becoming more ragged as he spoke. "There is nothing Amity would do to keep aggression out of the compound."

Jean Paul nodded in response as he rested a hand on Teddy's desk. "Exactly. And if you do not want to eat that, I would not blame you. If I could, I would throw it out of this building and not let anything like it in again. But, with things as they are, you have to eat that or we could end up with a dead initiate on our hands."

Teddy finally looked up from the roll, meeting Jean Paul's eyes for a moment till his resolve broke and he picked the roll up, leaving Jean Paul to had back to the front of the classroom. "And if it is any consolation, I overheard the Hawkeye discussing this issue with Bruce Banner, and I can assure you that I would not like to be in Mr. Banner's place at this moment."

Teddy stared back down at the roll, not heartened at all by the news, though Billy was, and began to eat the roll with a mechanical, miserable look to his face. As Jean Paul continued on the eye movements of someone remembering past memories, Teddy shot Billy a solemn look and he felt his stomach sit heavy in his chest.

Despite Teddy’s symptoms, he’d been doing well. Shockingly well, in fact. For every hard truth that he had to say, he managed to follow it up with a kind truth, making his own way through the Candor rules in a matter that suited him. The barrage of Candor that fell on them that first night hadn’t eased up a bit as they’d gone on their day to day life, alternating jobs that all Candor took to keep the Merc Mart running and clean. As they mopped and waxed the marble floors or cleaned public restrooms or filed paperwork, any Candor that saw them would come up to pepper them with questions.

Billy had begun to hate seeing someone in black and white as he stifled down his need to present the data first and then follow it up with a conclusion, and knew America wasn’t doing much better with swallowing her pride. Even Vic had admitted over dinner to the difficulties of admitting all of the deeply held in secrets that he’d kept from his friends and family and he had been born into truth.

But Teddy, out of all of them, seemed to relish the ability to speak honestly. He still smiled and offered to help someone if they were carrying a heavy bag and it seemed that every older woman in Candor was approaching him with tales of how wonderful their unmarried daughter was, and wouldn’t a nice, honest boy like himself like a nice date?

From their late night talks, Billy knew that the attention was driving Teddy a little bit crazy. After all, the idea of being singled out and lavished with attention more than other people was not something the Amity generally did. While they weren’t as hive minded as the Abnegation, the Amity still acted as a unanimous front on all things, with love divided equally. The idea of being ‘better’ than anyone else was almost alien to him as it was to Sooraya.

Erudite had not been like that. If you were smarter and more clever, only then you were worthy of attention. That wasn’t to say that Billy’s parents hadn’t loved him for who he was, they obviously did, but Erudite was competitive. Being proud of yourself was to be expected, if you warranted it. If you were clever, then you should let everyone know your worth so that, if they needed it, they could lean on you for answers. That viewpoint was cool, and logical, and set apart from the messiness of human emotion and to some part of Billy, it still made a lot of sense. After all, facts were undeniable and a steady place to lean on. Feelings made much less sense.

And yet, that had been what he’d been forced to use in Candor. Suddenly, he couldn’t hide behind the facts of the matter and had to dredge up his opinion, which he’d shoved away for years under the weight of Kessler’s fists, back to the surface. He had to let it speak through him, and exposing that part of him still made him sure that, at any moment, he would pay for it.

But instead, he was thanked for his honesty, and praised for letting his hotheaded opinions make themselves known. And while it was exhausting, and terrifying, it had become liberating.

The serum had hit Teddy faster than Billy had expected. After an hour, his eyes had drooped and his posture had changed from tense rigidity to a slump against his desk. And though he was smiling, his mind didn't seem to be working. Pleasant and false platitudes kept spilling out of his mouth. Worst of all, Teddy didn't even seem to notice the shocks, looking a bit surprised for a moment before sinking back into a beatific smile.

The dosing had to have been wrong, Billy concluded. If that roll had been intended for Teddy's first nights out of the Amity compound, it likely would have barely affected someone so used to the peace serum, with a resistance that had built up after years. But now, when he'd been off of the serum for a few weeks, what would have been a normal dose was wreaking havoc.

Jean Paul seemed to have noticed this as well, and he finally grabbed a piece of needle nosed pliers from his desk as his strode over to Teddy, mid lesson, and slipped the chain of of the cuffs on the blonde's ear. "Billy." The instructor said crisply, "Take him back to your quarters and keep an eye on him. When he's no longer doped, his lie detector will be back in full force, so let me know once that occurs, mm?."

Billy scrambled as he closed his notebook, setting his pens and pencils back into his bag. In the corner of his eye, he saw Sooraya doing the same for Teddy as he smiled up at her, sending a jolt of pain through Billy's chest. 'They've been close lately', he thought, chest tightening as he jealousy sudden took a firm hold of him before that rational voice in his head, the one that had kept him from getting beat more in Erudite, cut through his thoughts.

_'Logically, you know the chances of him actually liking you in the same way that you like him are tiny. Either way, he's your friend, and he needs you to act like one.'_

Billy let out a small shaky breath as he nodded his head. America had managed to pull Teddy up from his seat and his smile was sunny as he turned it towards Billy, not even noticing as Sooraya tried to hand him his own bag. Billy ended up taking it as Teddy threw an arm around Billy's shoulders, slurring to the class, "This guy is great. Really great. You're all great. Just... great."

Billy blanched as he patted Teddy's arm and started to inch them towards the door as the classroom chuckled. "Aaaand it is time to go, big guy."

Teddy's arm was warm where it lay across Billy's shoulders and whenever Teddy wanted to say something, which was often, he would lean right up against Billy's ear. His breath made Billy shiver and he had to force everything out of his mind as they slowly made their way through the halls.

"You know, this place is great." Teddy said, voice hoarse and deep. "Really, just great. I'm super happy here. And the showers! I really like the showers. All the water we use at Amity is ice cold and you can only spend, like, 10 seconds in there before you turn into an icicle."

Billy tensed, waiting for the tell tale sound of the humming zap that came from Teddy's earrings when he said something that wasn't exactly true, but relaxed as nothing happened. For once, Jean Paul had been merciful and Billy was grateful. “Yeah?” He asked, keeping his voice even as he tried to counterbalance Teddy’s heavy weight.

“Yeah!” Teddy said, his grin wide and his snaggletooth was suddenly visible, which Erudite orthodontists would have been quick to fix had he been born in their faction. It fascinated Billy in some strange and deeply tangible way as he fought the idea of what it would be like to kiss someone with a jaw like that. “Morningwood was totally gone after a shower. Funny, huh? Morning wood. Since Amity are all about trees!”

Billy bit on his lower lip as he tried not to think about the first morning that they’d woken up in Candor, when Teddy had apparently forgotten that not every faction slept in the nude and had trudged to their shared bathroom, naked as the day he was born with his cock half hard and dusky against his tan skin. Billy had kept that memory with him during his own showers and had tried to put it out of his mind, but it was hard as Teddy breathed in and out into his ear.

“Yup.” He said finally, voice tight. “Pretty funny alright.”

Teddy chuckled at that, his voice still hoarse and like he’d just woken up and it did things to Billy. He tried not to think about anything, but he kept thinking bout that morning and how Teddy had looked when he’d come out of a Candor store with a smart pair of tight fitting trousers and a dark vest over his linen shirt, filling everything out in a way that could have made angels, if they had existed, weep. The look on his face had been so sheepish and sweet as he’d looked over to Billy, eyelashes long as he asked, “How does it look?”

Billy, to his horror, hasn’t been able to answer for a moment. “Like a Candor.” He finally stammered out, it being enough of a truth that his lie detector hadn’t picked it up, and not so truthful that Teddy would know that Billy wanted nothing more at that moment than to have Teddy on his lap.

But Billy was a friend and Teddy, at this moment, needed him, so he bit it all down and just kept walking, ignoring how warm Teddy felt and how he’d likely never be this close to him again. Thankfully, the back hallway that he’d chosen to get back to their room was quiet and relatively devoid of people, except for the occasional Candor that were much too busy to handle a pair of initiates, having more important things to do in the basement with clients facing Candor justice. In what seemed like hours but was probably only ten minutes, Billy had unlocked the main room to their dorm and ushered Teddy in.

Teddy had stumbled into the room, leaving Billy to guess that he’d find himself on one of the couches as he relocked the door behind him. He flinched a little as a pair of broad arms wrapped around his chest, the feel of Teddy’s breath warm and hot on the back of his neck as the blonde boy began to hum.

“T?” Billy said carefully, feeling his chest tighten up. “Are you… what are you doing?”

Teddy let out a deep breath, the sound and feel of his breath making Billy need to put his hand against the door for some anchor to keep stabilized. No one had got this close, no one that he liked as much as Teddy and he suddenly hated himself for feeling like this around a guy that was already this good of a friend.

“I want.” Teddy muttered, and Billy could feel the feel the sweat from his dark drenched blonde temples as Teddy ran the side of his head against Billy’s neck. “I want to be close to someone.”

Billy’s stomach dropped into the floor, a pang deep in his chest even as his pants became too tight. He’d been told that, as he grew older, his body would calm down and being older suddenly wasn’t close enough. He didn’t want to feel his body alight like this, not now, not with Teddy drunk on peace serum like this.

His mother’s papers had explained the chemical reaction to the serum in much drier, Erudite terminology. _‘With increased dopamine to the central receptors, the peace serum will tear down the walls of inhibition that one may have. Under the effects of the serum, the individual will likely feel a need to connect with those around them which eases the Amity faction member into the non violent, ‘loving’ ideals of the Amity faction compound. Even a stranger will be seen as a dearest loved one under high enough doses of the peace serum, though the effect does not generally last long once the high doses of the serum has run it’s course.’_

Billy pushed an elbow back against Teddy’s chest, letting his hurt and anger and frustration force the bigger, and so well meaning, boy back. “Not me.” He said, voice tight. Without speaking, he began to herd Teddy into their room, closing the door behind him once the larger boy finally stumbled in.

Billy slid down against the door, trying to ignore Teddy’s half hearted thumps and cajoles against the door as he stuffed his index finger into his mouth and bit down. Tears had pricked his eyes by the time that Teddy had stopped.

\--------------------

Tommy was scrabbling over the bunk, blood roaring in his ears and his vision swimming at anything but Kessler. He was going to kill him, to fucking tear him apart limb from god damned limb and feed it back to him, and if Eli didn't get away from him and stop holding him back, he was going to have to do the same to him.

The meaty thwack of a punch landing made the barracks hush, surprising even Tommy into staying still. For all that Eli and Kate had worried about Tommy going after Kessler when he went on one of his 'dirty fags' rants that seem tailored to piss Tommy off, they had apparently forgotten about Santo.

His chest heaved with barely restrained fury as he followed Kessler as he crawled along the ground, cradling his bleeding nose. No one dared move as Santo reached down and grabbed Kessler by the front of his shirt, hauling him up and slamming him up against the wall. His normally chill face had gone stony, every movement that he made restrained and tense.

"You're fucking done talking that bullshit." Santo said, voice much calmer than it had any right to be. "I don't know Tommy's brother, but I do know that my best friend is gay, and you know what? He is the coolest guy that I know, and for the record, he has never tried to 'go after my ass'. I've been listening to your crap for too long, and I'm done listening to it anymore. If I hear you say one more word about this to anyone, I will turn you into a smear in that pavement. We clear?"

Kessler nodded weakly, not bothering to get up too quickly after Santo threw him to the side. Santo looked like a raging bull, shoulders hitched up and high and a flush on his dark cheeks. "I'm going to train." He growled, snagging a towel as he stormed out of the room.

"Remind me to never get Santo angry." Eli broke the stunned silence, eliciting a nod of emphatic agreement from Kate. Once Tommy finally recovered from the surprise of it all, he slipped out of Eli's grasp and trotted after Santo.

While Santo had been cool and all, Tommy definitely had not expected that reaction from him. When Kate and Eli would get onto a passionate argument about one thing or another, Santo had been the one that Tommy could turn to in order to just talk bullshit with someone. They'd talk shit about each other's training earlier that day or talk about what tattoos were were wanting to get when they had enough credits or about shit that they missed from back home. Nothing serious, but he didn't get the feeling that Santo had any interest in talking about anything deeper than that.

Tommy slowed down, taking his time as he wove through the tunnels of the Dauntless compound. They still drove him a little stir crazy, very different from the miles of windows that covered the Erudite headquarters. But they muffled his footsteps and surrounded by the dimly lit stone, Tommy slowly found his heartbeat returning to it's regular rhythm as adrenaline left him. Acclimation was coming slowly to him, but he was willing to admit that, in time, these tunnels would become comforting.

As he neared the warehouse, the meaty thump of fists against a punching bag began to echo through the tunnels, growing louder as he finally reached the gym. Bucky, their instructor, was seated next to the entryway and wasted no time in shooting Tommy a look. "Want to explain what crawled up his ass?"

"Kessler." Tommy said with a shrug as he burrowed his hands in his pants and watched Bucky stitch up and re oil a pair of boxing gloves. "He was running his mouth and Santo got to him before I did. Pretty fucking awesome to see, actually."

"He need medical treatment?" Bucky asked, looking up at Tommy with a wry grin through the scars on his face and Tommy suddenly understood Eli's little crush.

"Naaah. Well. Maybe? But he's not dead." Tommy rocked back onto his heels and back onto his toes, nervous energy thumping through his veins again as Bucky gave him a long look.

He finally tossed the boxing glove into a basket of equipment, setting his work tools down before standing. "Fucking kids." He grumbled, shaking his head. "I'll go take a look. Try to keep Santo from breaking that punching bag, if you could."

"Can do." Tommy muttered, watching as Bucky headed away from the gym, only taking a quick moment to check out his ass. But just a quick one, because if there was anyone who scared the daylights out of him, it was Bucky. The guy was intense, all growls and glares and after Bucky finally agreed to spar with Eli and kicked his ass in no time at all, they all were giving him a wide, respectful berth.

Tommy finally turned his attention back to Santo, who looked like he was ready to send the punching bag into the atmosphere with the force of his blows. If he'd calmed down since leaving the barracks, it wasn't by much. Tommy plopped down on one of the weight benches to wait him out. For all of Santo's strength, endurance wasn't exactly something that he was known for. He went into everything with too much gusto to be able to last, but it worked well enough for him.

Eli wasn't like that, though. He thought way too much, every action seeming to be carefully rationed to be only just enough to get done what needed to be. He was strong and decently fast, sure, but his head was his best asset. Kate fought like him, but she was a master at using someone else's momentum against them. To date, she'd been the only one to take Santo down during a spar, through a well placed trip and her elbow digging into a sore spot and keeping him pinned.

Tommy's score against Eli was evenly tied, his own unconventional and ever changing style able to spark an occasional brilliant move and take him down, but Eli's steadiness and perfect form made that hard to break through. The few times that Tommy had beat Kate had been sheer coincidence, his speed managing to get her off balance enough that he was able to get in a few jabs to throw her off just enough. Santo and Tommy were a mess to watch in their spars, neither able to get in a decent hit on each other. Santo was just too strong and well muscled for any of Tommy's hits to matter, and Tommy was too fast for Santo to be able to land a solid hit on.

He'd started idly chewing on his nail by the time Santo finally backed away from the punching bag, soaked in sweat and breathing hard. "You didn't break that thing again, right?" Tommy asked. "Bucky'll make me fix it, and you've seen my stitching. We might as well just throw it out now and pretend it never existed."

Santo shot him a weary smirk as he headed over to the water fountain and took a long drink, splashing some of the water over his dense, curly hair. Fatigue was written in every step as he headed back over and Tommy noticed that a few of his knuckles had split again as he toweled himself off. "Nah, it's fine. You decide to actually train?"

"Nope. Figured I should thank you." Tommy pulled a leg up onto the bench, tucking his heel onto the lip of his and wrapping an arm around it as his quadriceps ached into the stretch. "After all, Kessler was talking about my brother. I appreciated what you did for me."

"I didn't do it for you." Santo snapped, a sudden heat to his words that Tommy hadn't expected, one that made him throw his head back in surprise. Santo's voice softened a little as he stretched the other arm. "I mean... I did it because that kind of shit? It's just fucked. I used to talk like that, because I knew that it was what you joked about, you know? But then Vic, my best friend, he finally told me that he was, yanno, like that, and I saw how fucked up it was."

"Vic didn't tell me for years, because he thought I'd hate him. And in Candor? Man, that doesn't happen. When you're little, you might leave out incriminating things about what you'd done that day, but you didn't not tell the truth about something that big. When he finally told me, I asked why he hadn't said anything and apparently, he thought that I'd hate him."

Santo's nose wrinkled as he shook his head, sitting down on a gym mat as he started stretching out his hamstrings. "I dunno. That screwed my head up a little. Vic's been my bud since forever and the fact that the shit I was saying could make him think that I could hate him? It had to stop. And when other people started saying that crap, I had to say something, because the idea that my friend would think that I could be that shitty was too bad of a thought. It's why I decided to go Dauntless, you know? To defend cool people like that from assholes that don't understand."

Tommy nodded, picking at the hem of his pants as they listened to the sound of raindrops hit the tin ceiling of the gym. "I get it." He said with a small shrug. "Billy, my brother, he's a good kid. A huge nerd, but he was always there for me, when no one else was. I don't care if he just likes guys, I can't really see why it matters anyway. Kessler just picked on him because Billy didn't fight back, not because he was gay. Pretty sure that was just his excuse anyway."

"You miss him?"

Tommy let out a deep breath. "Yeah. I mean, I'm glad that he transferred to Candor and I wouldn't want him to be here in Dauntless, but. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't worried about him running his mouth off and getting into deep shit."

Santo shot him a grin at that, "If he went Candor? He'll fit right in if he's running his mouth off."

With a snort, Tommy stood and grabbed the first aid kit and lobbed it at Santo. "Good to know. But c'mon, I'm fucking starving and your knuckles'll just bleed all over dinner if you don't wrap them up."

Santo grabbed the first aid kit, cracking it open as he used an antiseptic wipe on his knuckles. "Yeah, and maybe Laura will be wearing those leather pants again."

"Such a great ass. Hurry up though, seriously." Tommy eased back against the bench, sharing a quick smile with Santo as they sunk back into their normal, casual line of conversation.

\----------------------------

Billy was grateful that America had found him. She’d shoved her way into their dorm, dark curls flying across her face and the grey melancholia that had set on him was pushed out like death in the wake of epinephrine through a dying man’s heart. He was left with nerves, crowing with pain as she hauled him up, through a doorway and into the girls’ bathroom.

“What happened, chico.” She said, voice low and easy as she backed away, crossing her arms one over the other. America should have been wearing armor, he thought. Great golden bracers across her arms to deflect any bullet of thought or pain that passed through the threshold of her indomitable will.

But time had left Billy with a sense of emotional exhaustion that served him well as he shook his head, the weight of having to tell the truth sitting as heavy as the metal across his forehead. “He got close. But I know how the peace serum works, it makes you do that. And it hurt.”

America’s nostril’s widened as she reared back and Billy had to yelp, “No, not that!” He threw out his hands, sliding himself between the door and her as he bit out, “It hurt mentally! Mentally, not physically, he didn’t hurt me like that.”

She waited a moment, and once his forehead didn’t buzz and shock him, she relaxed only slightly. “Then what? What’d he say?”

“He was on the peace serum.” Billy said, sagging a bit as he closed the lid to their toilet and sat onto the porcelain, the feeling of pulling his hair against his scalp sweet as the pain edged it’s way into the corners of his consciousness. “They get like that. My mom is a psychiatrist, she worked with the Amity a lot and I worked with her on a lot of it. You gravitate towards any warm body on that stuff.”

She gave him a long look at that, eyes dark and narrowed. Her voice was measured, belying the careful menace that she held. America was still Dauntless, despite the white of her shirt. “And what, exactly, did he say?”

Billy’s eyes were warm, prickling against him. And, not for the first time, he thought about how the human tear ducts were completely illogical for crying. After all, they evolved to push away detritus from the eye when window blew foreign objects into it, the idea that they should to the same to painful memories was silly. But still, even the most logical of Erudite cried at times, their bodies betraying their logic. “That he wanted to be close to someone.”

“And?”

He glared up at her, jaw set and furious. “And I don’t want to be warm body. Not to him. Not because of a drug.”

America stepped backwards, shoulders easing down like someone backing away from a snarling dog. She leaned against the white tile of the bathroom, hands held up in benediction as she said softly, “Easy, chico. It’s got to be hard.”

Billy scowled at her, feeling how flushing and painfully hot his eyes and cheeks were against the roiling of emotion under his skin. “What do you think.” His voice was a hissed growl, like a garbage compactor dealing with an especially heavy load.

Her eyes were dark and pitying as she looked at him and, only to late, he realized that she was obliged to answer by the cuff on her arm.

“I think you love him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My head canon on the other Faction's initiations besides Dauntless:
> 
> Candor (my personal favorite): Constant lie detector devices on initiates to teach them about the importance of speaking the whole truth, as seen in the fic.
> 
> Abnegation: Initiates, if they so choose to (and they all do or are thrown out), are given a temporary dose of the memory serum so they can forget their own narcissism and better blend into the selfless whole of Abnegation.
> 
> Amity: Initiates are given various forms of the peace serum, which in my mind are also pretty similar to MDMA aka ecstasy, and are basically sent out among the fold to work in perpetual hallucinogenic chillness to mellow them out and make them more amicable to simple pleasures of Amity.
> 
> Erudite: Constant testing and cutthroat competition in a way that no one else deals with. The end of their initiation and what I believe it is will be kept a secret, since it's kind of a plot device in this fic.
> 
> I would love any kind of opinion on what I think of the factions.


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Warning: possible trigger warning in the first part. I address Kate's rape. It's not graphic, but. Keep that in mind.)

Kate Bishop was many things, as a Candor. She was the granddaughter of the last leader of Candor, an obedient daughter to her parents and a wry source of advice for her sister. She was a gifted orator and a good student and a good girl. But Kate Bishop, when in black and white, was also a victim, and had been since she was fourteen.

After the attack, an Abnegation woman had found her and helped her home. By that time, Kate's mind had fled deep into the recesses of her mind and hid there. She couldn't speak, couldn't think, couldn't put into words how her dress was torn or how the bruises on her arms and body had bloomed against her skin. And she certainly couldn't explain the tearing feel deep inside of her that was alien and too strange.

Her father was roaring, furious and chomping at the bit for answers while her mother and sister cried, but the gray emptiness that Kate had let herself sink into made their voices dull and far away. Snippets of thought would float by her, like how the perfume she'd applied that morning couldn't cover the stink of the Factionless man, or how she'd lost her bag and wouldn't her teachers be mad tomorrow when her essay wasn't turned in on time.

The sight of calloused fingers waving in front of her face had finally made her look up. A lump settled hard and hot in her throat as Clint looked down at her, the lines on his tanned face suddenly making him look impossibly ancient. "Kate." He'd said, voice so kind that she hated him for it. "We need to know."

Anger flared in her, a fiery lick of heat that someone managed to pierce the gray miasma around her. "No." She managed to stammer out, voice growing with strength and volume. "No! They can't know what he did. I don't want them all to know, Clint."

"Kate." Clint crouched down to sit eye to eye with her and she couldn't look away as horror rose. His face was too solemn, too set to be swayed. As she tried to scramble up and away, Clint's words and the words of that of her family's seemed to rest on her chest. Electricity tore through her as her breath grew hitched, panic having taking a steady hand on her chest and squeezed.

A hand took a firm hold of one of her shoulders and her skin recoiled and burned under someone else daring to touch her and she tried to fight Clint off, seeing his face faze between her mentor and the Factionless man. But he was strong and quick and the needle that stabbed into the side of her neck hit true as Kate sunk, kicking and screaming, into the hold of truth serum.

In the days that followed, the one thing that Kate craved but couldn't seem to find was a sense of normalcy. After what had been taken from her, fear had gripped her chest with the thought that she would never be the same again. And sure enough, as word spread through the Mart, nothing was the same. No one was cruel, in fact many men and women had come up to her and shared similar experiences, but Kate hadn't wanted any of it. All she'd wanted was to know that she was still the strong Kate that she'd seen herself as before.

Logically, she could understand why the truth had been wrenched from her. For one, they'd been able to catch the Factionless man and no one else would be hurt in the same way as she had. And, as her therapist had told her, facing what happened was an important part of any recovery process. But the secret had been hers to give and the loss of it felt almost as painful as her ordeal.

Over time, the pain had ebbed. And speaking in group therapy with other people who fully understood where she had been and the unsteadiness of the ground that she now walked was helpful. The open nature of Candor meant that it was very hard to feel as though you were the only one who was flawed and the idea that she wasn't alone had taken on a comforting feel to it.

But she was still a victim in their eyes. So was everyone else, true, but there had been no escape.

In Dauntless, no one besides Santo, Alani and Maxwell knew her story, and they weren't going to tell anyone about Candor secrets. In the Dauntless headquarters, she could wear a short dress and not wonder if the people around her saw how she was dressed and wondered if what had happened had been her fault. She could flirt with boys who didn't treat her like chipped glass and when she stepped into the sparring ring, she was no victim.

She was Dauntless.

\-----------------------

America had been four years old when the old man who lived two doors down had been dredged up from the Chasm. 

The Chasm was one of the few things that Dauntless children actually feared, the rushing fury of the underground river swelling and snarling around the Dauntless compound. The stories were constantly passed from the older kids to the younger, tales of how monsters roiled in the deep waters, ready to snap up and drag an unsuspecting child down into its abyss for breakfast.

The old man's body had been waterlogged and swollen as he was pulled from the river and America had clutched tightly to her mother's hand as she looked for any sign of teeth marks. Her mother's strong face had been a stony mask as she clutched her groceries tight in one hand and America's hand in the other.

"Did a monster get him?" America had asked her, a thrill crawling up her spine at the idea of that much danger. 

"No." Her mother's voice was firm and almost cold. "He was getting old. He was having issues making his way through the compound. So he jumped."

Her face had gentled, almost, as she looked down to America. "A Dauntless who can't fight isn't worthy of being a Dauntless."

Those words would haunt America's dreams after her mothers jumped the chasm when she was twelve. Rosa had been stabbed by a raider outside of the Amity compound, and from what the onlookers had said, Azul had helped her over the railing before jumping off to follow her wife. 

The funeral for her mothers had been filled with soliloquies from drunk Dauntless about how brave they had been, to not let Rosa be a drain on dauntless resources and how grand of a love they'd shared, to have Azul follow suit. The compound had thumped their drinks and fists on the table and celebrated their deaths while all that America could feel was fury.

Whenever anyone would congratulate her on the glorious sacrifice they'd made, she'd spit back at them that leaving their child behind was not glorious or beautiful or good in anyway. They had been selfish. America had needed them, she'd needed them to brush her hair and listen to her tell them about her day and to keep her in the only home that America had ever known. They had chosen each other over her, and as she was raised in the orphan's barracks by herself, she could never forget that betrayal.

The Dauntless funerals made her sick. Everyone would fall over themselves to paint the deceased as a brave and honorable warrior dying for a good cause, no matter whether the person had died in the line of fire or had circumvented getting banished from Dauntless for being infirmed. The lie may have been pretty and it may have cut the pain of the constant mourning that was a way of life in Dauntless but to America, the stench of it was unbearable.

There had been no other choice for her besides Candor. America was best suited to Dauntless, she knew that well enough. Not much scared her, not the extent that she couldn't work past the fear, bury it down and keep moving. And she loved the rush of adrenaline when she sparred or climbed up a building when one wrong step would kill her. But the lying would have made her snap eventually, and the idea of throwing herself down the chasm after one funeral too many made her sick.

And, for all that the fancy clothes of Candor made her itch and the constant push to admit to her fears rankled her, she knew that she would never have to suffer through a Dauntless funeral again.

\----------------------------

Kate hadn't been surprised that Tommy had found alcohol, but she had been surprised that he'd managed to get his hands on some before Santo had. Santo had been the self proclaimed master of Candor liquor cabinets, pouring out just enough of the fine spirits that their parents had tried to hide away and combining them all into a mixture that was, at once, horrifying and strangely thrilling. And then, he would proceed to get fabulously drunk on his ‘elixir’ and Vic, while tipsy himself, would be forced into trying to keep Mrs. Vaccaro from stumbling on her son and grounding him for an eternity. All in all, it made for an exciting night.

Tommy seemed to favor a more laid back approach that featured a small jar of what was apparently moonshine and a large bottle of apple juice for a chaser. He’d opened his bag on their way back to the barracks and let her get a quick peek before giving her a wink. “Meet me in the hall outside the training room so I don’t have to drink this alone. Eli would just lecture me and Santo would probably drink it all.” He’d whispered into her ear, before straightening up and walking along at a jaunty pace.

She’d had to think about it, to be honest. After all, meeting a boy alone after dark usually led to one action in particular. But, as she mulled it over in her head during her shower and while brushing her teeth, it was Tommy. She liked him, almost unable to help herself. He was funny and charming and non threatening and, beyond any of that, he treated her like a tough warrior woman who could, and had, beat his ass. 

By the time that she’d crawled into bed, still fully clothed, her mind had been made up. Once Eli’s breathing had slowed and Santo’s snores were ricocheting through the barracks at a high enough volume to cover the sound of her footsteps, she had creeped out of the barracks and headed for their destination.

Tommy actually looked surprised when she showed up, but he quickly recovered. His grin was rakish as he said in a gentlemanly fashion, “Your tits look huge in that shirt.”

Her nervousness left her as abruptly as it had popped up, giving him a half hearted punch and feeling, in no small way, gratified by his yowl. “What?! And here I thought that little miss ‘I was born in Candor would appreciate perfect honesty.” 

She gave him another light punch as he laid a hand over his chest and made as though he was about to faint. “I appreciate it. And I know they look great.” Kate slid her hands into her pockets as she grinned up at Tommy, feeling emboldened by the way that his pupils dilated at just the sight of her smile. 

“Good.” He answered, voice soft. Kate had only had a moment of warning that the shithead in Tommy was making an appearance as he suddenly dug his knuckles into her dark hair before jogging off down the hallway with a hooted, “See if you can keep up, princess!”

It took her a moment to recover, staring back at his retreating figure before letting out a curse that her mother would have fainted at hearing and took off after Tommy. He was fast, but he wasn’t going all out, which should have rankled her pride, but instead struck her as strangely sweet, in a Tommy way. 

The sound of their footfalls against the stone floors of the tunnels ricocheted around them as Kate revelled in the feeling of her body propelling itself forward like an arrow loosed from a taut bowstring. While she’d kept herself in decent shape while in Candor, the rigors of Dauntless had torn her body apart and let it knit back together, creating new swells of muscle that would catch her by surprise. The new body felt like it had been waiting in the shadows all this time, prowling behind the pretty shell that she’d always hid behind. But now, that shell was gone and all that was left was this new, fierce, real Kate.

A sense of euphoria raised in her veins as her body adjusted to the run, endorphins swimming through her blood and making the sweat soaked bangs that wisped around her face seem entirely inconsequential. She could run forever, it seemed. She could fight forever, work forever, if only her body would let her keep this sensation for an eternity. 

The chasm roared to their side, sending up misty droplets of water that was shockingly cool against her bare arms. Tommy had finally slowed, barely panting as he gave her a grin that was earnest enough that it hurt. Blood had risen to his pale cheeks and his blonde hair collected droplets of mist like a spiderweb in the dew. His eyes crinkled up as she reached forward to comb her fingers through his hair, feeling the silk soft strands as they slipped past her calloused fingertips. “Good run, huh?”

“It was.” Kate couldn’t tell you what had come over her at that moment, except that she wanted to feel the quirk of his smile against her lips and wanted, very badly, to see if he would blush if she slid her hands under his shirt. He did blush, she was gratified to notice, as she stepped forward, grazed her fingertips against the skinny expanse of his chest and leaned up to kiss him.

For someone with excellent reflexes in the ring, Tommy was not as quick when being suddenly kissed. But he rallied quickly enough from his surprise and the chuckle that brushed against her lips made her smile as he kissed her back, finally dragging her back into the shadows.

He was less than graceful as he wriggled out of his shirt and Kate was given a puppy sweet grateful face in response as she helped him out, though the reward of his lithe chest pressed against her wet tank top was more than enough. Tommy was less muscled than she usually liked but what he had felt like iron under her hands as she let her hands explore. 

The boys in Candor never acted like this. Their faces had been so focused, frowning as though their hands would leave bruises wherever they touched unless they handled her like porcelain. It had been nice to have someone look at you so reverentially, true, but they never relaxed and neither did she. And if she’d laughed at them, she would have bet money on the boys recoiling back at horror and hurt.

Kate had laughed at Tommy when he let out a whimpery sound when a hand had found one of her nipples and she’d frozen, eyes fluttering up to wait for his reaction and dreading how awkward it would be when he backed away. Instead, he’d made a face at her briefly before nipping at her jaw. “Oh sure, make fun of me for enjoying having one of my fave erogenous zones played with, we’ll see what happens when you decide to grace me the with the pleasure of your girls. Seriously though, if you wanna keep playing with them - Yep, you’re really good at this, I’m going to regret telling you about a weakness, aren’t I?”

Muffling her laugh into a kiss, she felt something lift in her as Tommy’s hands slipped under her shirt, making the muscles in her abdominals jump as he pressed his cold, long fingers against her heated skin and suddenly. She felt it. 

Arousal. It unfurled, licking between her legs as that part of her that had been so quiet when around other boys or even under her own attempts late at night had suddenly flared to life. She bit at her lower lip, back arching as she savored the longed for sensation of want. Kate hadn’t even realized that she’d shut her eyes until Tommy let out a long exhale.

“Damn.” He muttered, green eyes wide as saucers as a grin, earnest and thrilled as she’d ever seen, furled across his face. “Do you have any idea how good you look like that? All flushed and biting your lip and-” He let out another exhale, pale bangs flopping across his face as he shook his head. “When you wanna, I would totally be all about going down on you because I bet that would look god damn amazing. But, you know, preferably when I’m running on a full night sleep and not having to face the idea of fighting Santo in the morning because I really don’t want to have a crook in my neck when I’m having to look up at that assw- hnf!”

Of all the many ways to shut Tommy up, this one had suddenly become a favorite. Taking off her shirt, however, was less effective in getting him to be quiet, but he switched over to telling her nipples how gorgeous they looked and ran his fingers over the soft swell of her breasts, so she minded that chatter much less. They’d continued like that, both topless and writhing against each other and though Kate could feel that Tommy was certainly interested, he’d made no moves at going further and she liked that. Instead, they just touched and kissed and Kate laughed more than she expected that she ever had with her shirt off.

With the booze still untouched, they finally ended up sitting down on the stone, Kate’s fingers idly petting Tommy’s hair as he babbled from where his head rested in her lap. Though it was cold, she’d left her shirt off. The chill of the mist felt good against her breasts, normally trapped behind the stifling warmth and compression of a sports bra and shirt and the freedom of the open air felt deliciously illicit. Tommy grinned up at her, jumping onto another tangent as he said, in a voice completely matter of fact, “Seriously, giving that Julian kid a hand job for the booze was the best idea ever, if only because he showed me this spot. Turns out the cameras don’t get pointed in here, yanno?”

Her hand stopped as the thoughts in her mind screeched to a sudden stop, looking down at him and hoping she didn’t look quite as perplexed as she felt. “Julian? The Dauntless born initiate? The big guy with the black hair and a really great jaw? You gave him a hand job?”

Tommy froze, eyes belying the fact that he was suddenly very worried about what he said. “Uh. Yeah. Earlier today. I joked that I’d give him a hand job for the booze but he kinda took it more seriously than I thought so bam, I’ve got my hands down his pants. Also, he really likes it when you talk kinda filthy to him, though that is probably more than you wanted to know.” 

He gulped, darting up into a cross legged sit as he turned to face her. “You… aren’t upset are you? I mean, I kind of don’t date people, it doesn’t really work that great for me? I’m just bad at that whole one person thing, seriously. You’re amazing, you’re seriously the coolest chick that I have met ever, but I mean.” Tommy’s head ducked down as he held his hands up in submission. “I did still kind of whore myself out for booze earlier, and I probably would have given him a hand job anyway-”

Tommy would have kept babbling if Kate hadn’t put her hand over his mouth, and that would not have done anything to help her think, so she was not sorry to do it in the slightest. Did that news change anything? Did it matter that Tommy didn’t want to settle down with her and have a perfect little family life? It was with no small amount of surprise that she realized that no, it really didn’t matter. This had been fun. And she wanted to do it again. And she actually did want to let him go down on her, in time.

He’d been licking at her palm by the time she finally took her hand away, face half panicked as she looked at him and gave him a smile. “You know what? I am not upset. Seriously. This was fun. But okay, wait. You like guys too? Do you… just like my tits in particular or… what are you?”

His face had brightened quite a bit and he thumped his head back down onto her lap as he looked back up at her. “Dunno. I just like hot people. Boobs, pussy, dicks, stubble, doesn’t really matter what the parts are, I guess. Never have. I liked kissing you, and I liked kissing Eli, and I liked them just as much. Not really a big deal, existential crises aren’t really my thing.”

She stared down at him, pretty sure that her eyes were about to pop out of her head. “Wait. You kissed Eli?”

“Uh, yeah. Though he wasn’t too psyched about it after, but trust me on this. He liked it during everything, just the part afterwards kinda messed with his head, I think.”

Kate’s head swam a bit as she tried to picture that. Eli fought with such an intensity that she would bet good money on the idea that he kissed with the same energy and the idea of that force going up against Tommy’s spontaneity was, frankly, disturbingly hot to think about. “Wow.” She breathed out.

She could feel the quirk of a smirk on his lips as he pressed a quick kiss against her stomach. “That totally turns you on, huh? If he lets me kiss him again, I’ll try to make sure you get a good view. Fuck, maybe we could take turns or something, that make him feel better about how he totally got a boner when he was kissing me. Abnegation guilt has got to blow, seriously. Do they even do oral in Abnegation? Seems like it’d be too fun for them, I dunno.”

Her mind was now racing, thoughts of Eli and Tommy, and Eli and Tommy and her, and her and Eli and finding out if oral sex was something that a former Abnegation member would do clamoring around in her mind. “I hope so.”

Tommy sighed against her leg, wiggling a bit in her lap. “Me too.”

\---------------------------------------------

 

Rigo and Dan were gone one morning. Their room had been hastily emptied, clothes packed away in pillowcases and toiletries snagged from the bathrooms. America could have guessed it would end this way.

Rigo's attention had started to wane, his mind lost in a fog as the constant shocks from his cuff reprimanded him for his refusal to voice his fear. And Dan, while a nice enough guy, would have likely been better off joining Amity and not caring what his parents would have thought. The idea of choosing to be Factionless was hard to comprehend, but. They had made their choices.

She still sighed, despite herself. The Factionless didn't survive long on the streets, chewed up and spat out by the Factions when they failed to meet the strict standards that each group had set up. And while the Abnegation did their best to try and care for them, most had given up by the time that they'd resigned themselves to living on the streets. They haunted the streets like gheists, and the idea of seeing Dan's face among them hurt.

After listening to the click clack of her lacquered nails as the ran along the door frame, America stepped into their abandoned room. The glow of sunrise had only just started to slip through the curtains and she had to resist the urge to pull them open to catch the view. Fall had begun to slip into winter and the chill that came off of the glass was nasty enough. She tucked a lock of curly hair behind an ear before checking through their drawers and closets, looking for any clue of where they make have gone or done but all that was left was a small carving of the Dauntless flame insignia on a bedside table.

She tore herself from their room, brows furrowed in displeasure as she looked at the thick black hair poking up from the pile of blankets on the couch. They were getting ridiculous. While she could understand Billy's anger at having their first kind of intimacy come from when Teddy was intoxicated, it wasn't exactly as though Teddy had any choice in the matter. 

This kind of behavior never would have happened among Dauntless born, or Candor born. But Teddy was born Amity and Billy was raised Erudite and they were acting too true to the stereotypes. Teddy had apologized until he was blue in the face, even going so far as to try and give Billy little gifts to try and get into his good graces, while Billy threw himself into their studies with a gusto that he hadn't shown before and avoided the issue entirely, or at least tried his best to do so.

As she padded into the room she shared, America wasn't too surprised to find Sooraya awake and brushing out her long dark hair. Though America was usually the first to wake up, the Abnegation girl was rarely far behind her. "Rigo and Dan are gone." She told her, not bothering to lower her voice for Darcy who had proven time and time again to be able to sleep through anything.

"I am sorry to hear that. Though it would be a lie to say that I didn't expect that would happen soon. You must be feel lonely, to be the last Dauntless initiate here."

America shrugged, not needing the weight of the cuff on her wrist to remind her to speak honestly on this topic. "They were nice, but. Candor doesn't suit them.”

She shucked her pajama pants off, slipping on a pair of tight, breathable workout pants in their stead. For all that Sooraya cared about how men saw her, America knew from experience that she didn’t care as much when around other women. As she tossed her t-shirt off and tossed it in the laundry bin, Sooraya’s voice cut through her sleepiness.

“Would you mind terribly if I joined you?”

America paused, turning to face Sooraya as she reached back to snag a sports bra with her fingers. “You don’t want to sleep in?”

Sooraya took in the sight of America’s breasts with no real surprise. For all that she ensured that her body was covered and shrouded around men, women seemed to be much less of a concern to her. Nodding towards Darcy, she set her eyes on America’s face. “She’s not going to be good company for at least a few hours. And I am wide awake. I may as well come with you.”

The bra was nicer than she was used to in Dauntless. Instead of crushing her breasts against her chest, the underwire lifted and separated their heft, leaving them still looking feminine and lovely. The Candor focus on appearance had it’s bonuses, and this was one of them. The white shirt, nestled in a drawer when they first moved in, was cool and soft against America’s skin as she pulled it on. “If you want. Though, if you want to actually use the gym, the robes aren’t the best idea.”

Sooraya gave her a small smile, hair pulled into a tight bun as she grasped a square bit of cloth and expertly swung it around her face. “I will make do, if you will allow me to come with.”

America had been filling up a water bottle from the kitchen’s sink as Sooraya slinking out of the room, covered in a black and white robe. As America’s lift of her brow, Sooraya lifted her robe like a flasher to reveal long pants and a long shirt, adequate to work out in. America gave her a smirk back, tightening her water bottle as she stepped over to open the door for Sooraya like a gentlewoman.

“I suppose you saw Billy on the couch?” Sooraya asked, voice soft. 

“Of course.” America’s nose wrinkled, the curls bursting from her bun slipping against the back of her neck. “Dumbasses. Even with lie detectors on them, they can’t tell each other the truth.”

A silence stretched between them, the sound of their feet against the marble floor filling the hallway with a comfortable beat. Sooraya’s voice was soft as she finally spoke, “It would be a lie to say that I am entirely comfortable with the idea of a relationship like... that, but I can see the depth that they already care for each other. The way that things stand now seems to be a waste."

"Nothing like this happens in Abnegation? Really?" The disbelief was written across her face as she snorted. "I doubt that."

"If it does, it occurs behind locked doors. Bringing more Abnegation children into the world is seen as the most selfless thing a person can do." She shrugged, worrying her thumb over the silver ring on her hand. "As an Abnegation, you must fulfill your obligations, or risk putting your own needs above what is best for the world. You give up the autonomy of your body, for the greater good."

America wrinkled her nose, pausing to nod to a passing Candor woman as she mulled over their conversation. "But Abnegation does know that gay people can still have children, right? Or adopt."

Sooraya's eyebrows shot up to be covered by her scarf. "Do they have children regularly? There seem to be... biological hindrances that would prevent that. It seems most unnatural and bad for the children. But even if they do have children naturally, Abnegation families do adopt as well, but that is done alongside having biological children."

For a moment, America could almost swear that she could feel Rosa’s hand on her face, her palms calloused, rough and warm. “I had two mothers.” She said, voice quiet. “As far as I know, they found a donor that they liked, one of them got really drunk and they made sure that I happened.”

The look that she gained from that was enough to make America want to fight and defend herself in righteous indignation, eyes blazing as she readied herself to defend her family. Sooraya bit at her lower lip, voice soft. “I meant nothing by what I said-” She winced, flicking her hand side to side as though trying to disperse the electric shock that ran through her.

“I did mean what I said.” Sooraya finally said. “I do find it strange. If behavior like that happened in Abnegation, I never noticed it. The world outside of Abnegation is very strange, and I had forgotten that you’d had mothers, in the plural sense. However, you are smart and strong and a good person, and if they raised you, they obviously did a good job of it. The idea is very different to me. I will do myself to educate myself in how others have grown up and try to see my world better from another's’ viewpoint.”

"Don't worry about it." America said, voice firm. "You grew up as a Stiff. I wouldn't expect you to be okay with it."

Irritation flickered over Sooraya's face, her mouth set as though she'd tasted something unpleasant. "No one in Abnegation would have treated your parents any differently, despite their own thoughts on the matter. Which is much more than the other Factions can say."

America let out a deep breath, biting at her lower lip. For all that she was strong and smart, being able to speak without putting her foot in her mouth was not a strength of hers. And that trait only seemed to get worse the longer she stayed in the Merciless Mart. "I didn't mean to offend you." She finally offered.

A nudge of relief bumped against America as Sooraya's face softened. "Ah. My apologies for taking offense, then. I have been... touchy about that topic lately. It seems that many have strong feelings about Abnegation that tend to be hurtful. And as I am very visibly Abnegation born here, I have grown quite tired of having to bear other people's opinion on my family. It is as though others pity me for having grown up there."

Sooraya's nose wrinkled as she continued on, voice hot. "And the way that people continue to assure me that it would be fine if I did not wear my robes or scarf! As though I am a brainwashed little church mouse who does nothing besides what I am told. I enjoy my robes. I like the way that they feel, and I like that I do not have to be self conscious about my body or figure. I enjoy the fact that the only people who will see my body will be those who I trust. This is my body. Wearing my robes is my choice, and one that I am happy to make."

America could only blink back at Sooraya, mind having gone completely blank as she struggled to find a response. Sooraya glanced over and flushed at the expression on America's face. "I apologize. That was not personal or pointed towards you, I simply needed to say it to someone, I suppose."

"Don't worry about it." Nudging Sooraya's side with an elbow, America shot her a grin. "It's kind of neat to hear you actually sound mad, reminds me that you're a person."

That earned her a wry smirk in return. "I am glad to hear that, then. How are you adjusting? It appears that Candor is appealing. And there are certainly plenty of former Dauntless here."

"Candor and Dauntless aren't too different." She agreed. "Well, the headquarters are completely different, but I still can't make up my mind on which faction likes fighting better. And sure, in Candor it's all verbal, but it's still just as vicious. But I do like it. It feels more, well, honest."

"Like a weight has been lifted here."

"Exactly."

They shared a smile, walking in silence until America finally pointed to a door with a small dumbbell painted on the door. "Here we go. It's not as fancy as the other one, but I don't think anyone else is going to be here this early."

Sooraya shot her a small smile as America held the door open for her after flipping the lights on. The weight room was small and could seem like a dungeon at times, despite the mirrors that ran the length of the walls. But the smell of chalk and faint odors of sweat and the ever present tangy rubber smell from the mats relaxed America. This smell was more familiar and more like home than anything else in Candor.

"Deadlifts today." She decided, plopping down onto one of the small gym mats as she began to stretch, watching as Sooraya removed her voluminous robe and hung it up. "What exercises were you thinking of doing?"

Sooraya's eyes kept flicking to the mirrors as though they were unsettling, her shoulders tight as she shook her head. "I do not know what exercises I would do. Abnegation members do not go to gyms."

This startled America. "Not at all?"

"Wanting to have a better body is vain." She explained, as though speaking to an especially slow child. "We don't even have mirrors out, generally. I saw my face twice a year, when my mother would cut my hair. When you are not worried about your appearance, trying to improve it is a worthless activity."

"I don't work out to look better." America said with a derisive snort, stretching her thick legs out in front of her as she rubbed at her calves through her knee high socks. "I enjoy how I look, but I do it because I like me. It's about feeling strong, and doing what other people can't."

"Because it makes you proud?"

"Well. Yeah, it does that."

"And there is another reason why Abnegation would not work out. Pride in yourself is seen as both a waste of time and emotion, and as a way to put your image of yourself above others." Sooraya's nose had wrinkled as she spoke but she joined America on the mat and began to copy her stretches.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you don't like that idea much?"

"No." She said, voice crisp. "I do not. I am proud of myself. I am proud of my intellect and I am proud of how I look and how I believe, and that gives me strength. I do not see how it hurts me, as Abnegation would leave me to believe."

America studied her face, noting the flush on her cheeks as she spoke passionately and with no small amount of feeling, looking very much like a Candor despite her headscarf. "Why do people stay in Abnegation, then? It seems like it's all about denying yourself."

Sooraya stilled, biting on her lower lip. Once she began to speak, her words were careful and clipped, as though she'd put a considerable amount of thought behind them. "When you answered Jean Paul the first day, about your fear of being thrown out of Dauntless as a child when your mothers died? I was very confused when you said that, as it is something that no Abnegation child would ever fear."

"For all that Abnegation is very strict," She continued, "I always knew that, no matter what, my neighbors and family would be there for me, to support me in whatever I did. Yes, we deny ourselves, but nothing is spared for another. When someone is sick, the members of the community would come together, without a word or a thought, to help them and their family. If you were carrying a heavy load, there were always many offers to help you bear the weight. Living in Abnegation means a life of simplicity and peace and serenity. Yes, you do give up a great deal, but you gain a great deal in return. "

America's head jerked back a bit as she considered Sooraya's words, and how alien that image of childhood was compared to her own. Dauntless was never serene. The faction delighted in living life on a knife's edge and while she knew that the flush of adrenaline could feel better than anything, a high cost would eventually be paid for that freedom.

"What are funerals like? In Abnegation, I mean." America asked, voice quiet.

"Funerals?" Sooraya blinked at her. "Well. We talk about the person, and how they have found peace. Everyone makes sure that the next of kin are supported, and we would usually eat a communal meal afterwards. They are sad and usually dull, but. Someone died, it was appropriate to be solemn. I’ve only been to a few, for the elderly who have passed on while in their beds after a long and full life. There is not a reason to be too sorrowful."

The idea startled her. The idea of someone living a long life, dying supported and loved in their bed. She knew that it happened, of course, but she had never seen it, not in Dauntless. Her eyes grew warm for a moment as she thought of her mothers, old and with their hair gone silver. That moment of sorrow and regret was what prompted her to get to her feet and offer her hand to Sooraya. "Come on." She said, smile shaky. "I'll teach you how to work out."

\--------------------------------

Kate’s head swam, but she felt delicious and warm and the look on Eli’s face was unbearable. His cheeks had flushed from the alcohol and he was staring at her like she was a goddess. When she’d first swung her leg over to straddle his lap, the heat of him had nearly made her swoon. With no small amount of fascination, she watched his eyelashes flutter as she ran a delicate finger against his cheekbone, the chasm’s roar covering up the heavy thump thump thump of her heart.

His mouth tasted of apples and the terrible liquor that Tommy had bargained for, but his lips were softer than she’d expected and his mouth was so warm as her tongue darted out to run against his lips and encourage them to open. Hands settled on her hips as Tommy pressed himself against her back and laid a gentle kiss on her neck and the heat of it all was unbearable. 

As she leaned back, Eli’s pupils were dilated and wide as they stared at Tommy, then her, the back to Tommy again as the Erudite boy twisted around Kate to kiss Eli as well. She couldn’t help herself, grinding against Eli in a bid for delicious friction as she watched. 

Eli had gotten huffy and taken control of the kiss almost as soon as Tommy had leaned in, throwing a rough calloused hand around the back of his neck as he kissed Tommy like he was in a battle. 

And the moment that Tommy had backed away, Kate had swooped in, eagerly demanding that kind of savagery. He growled when she nipped at his lip so she did it again, feeling wild and free and savage in the safety of their arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one knows who Lou is yet? Y'all need to read more Canadian comics. My offer still stands, anyone who can say his superhero name in the comments will be able to name a Marvel character and I'll put 'em in the story.
> 
> I have to say, I am really enjoying teasing out the little tangible details on the Factions and weaving them into this story. Like I've said before, Candor is definitely my favorite since I am a very blunt person, but the idea about how Kate might feel in a society like the Merc Mart, where no secret is kept secret long, might feel. Same with America and Dauntless.
> 
> The reason that America left Dauntless was actually something that popped up as I was writing this chapter, I hadn't put much thought into why she left Dauntless previously. I just knew that I wanted her in Candor to flesh out Billy and Teddy's storyline there, and that she would have to have come from Dauntless since she's so well suited for it. And then, bam. I was able to pull her mothers into it all and I'm actually really thrilled with how her backstory turned out. It's one of my favorite bits of writing in this story, right up there with Xavin's first night in Amity and Lou's in Abnegation.
> 
> Anyway! Thanks for reading. This fanfic seems to be writing itself, the story letting itself unfurl into a living thing under my typing by it's own volition. It's likely the most self indulgent thing I've written, in that I've been playing around with the wording and not trying to keep myself to deadlines and just instead letting it be what it is while I sit and watch.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAERTofWINTER wins at life and picked up on Lou's identity as this magnificent bastard: http://imgur.com/a/h4C1N As the son of Louis Sadler the First, and the original Major Mapleleaf, Lou takes up his father's mantle and becomes Major Mapleleaf II. However, he has no actual powers, besides the one that his trust Mounty steed, Thunder, grants him. If you think this all sounds insane, it's because it is. The newest Alpha Flight run was probably one of the worst things to come out of anything ever, but I loved it because it was just that batshit terrible. Anyway. I wrote stuff. Please read it. Sorry for the wait, but there was a big piece of this that I was chewing on like gristle and finally ended up having to spit it out because it just wasn't going to fit.

The air was cold against his lungs, breaking him back into consciousness as though he’d been thrown from an ornery horse. Lou took in deep, shuddering breaths as he steadied his hands against his knees and tried to come back to himself.

His memories had not been completely washed from his mind, as he had hoped. Instead, the memories were compacted down deep and had only starting to unfurl and weave their way back into his consciousness recently. It had started small, with the smell of dark earth from the gardens bringing him back to orchards of Amity, to the sound of a quiet laugh making him ache a little for home. 

The way that the memory serum had worked was curious and if Lou’d had any inkling of potential for Erudite, he was sure that he would have been fascinated by the process. The serum had managed to scrub his mind clean of how the experiences that he’d been through had affected him, while leaving his personality intact but free of baggage. And for Lou, it had been the happiest month of his life.

As he walked through the streets of the Abnegation neighborhood, the blocks consisting of small gray cement houses with small gardens in the back and fluttering clotheslines on the roofs, his body would relax in a way that it never had been able to before. When we saw a weed in a neighbor’s garden, he would go over and pluck it from the ground before it choked out the rest of the leaves without an expectation of a reward or a pat on the head for being so kind. When an elderly woman would leave her house with a large load of laundry, he could offer to help her carry it with no fuss, only a small smile in return and a quiet conversation about the weather as they walked to the laundromat.

And whenever Lou would return to the small room that he shared with an Erudite boy, he would find his list of belongings slowly grow. A family that had an extra toothbrush would bring it over, keeping in mind that a transfer wouldn’t have belongings of their own, and a public servant with the hobby of woodworking had even left him with a small carving of a leaf. The wood felt smooth and grounding under his thumb and he’d taken to slipping the three segmented maple leaf into his pocket before heading out for the day.

His hand now reached into his pocket as he grasped for the leaf, feeling the edges bite into his palm as the red hot pain flared along his body. The sound of a thump on a wooden table had caused him to flinch earlier in the night, adrenaline humming through his veins as he’d needed to excuse himself out of the dining hall and into the cold night air. He had begun to shiver once his sweaty skin hit the chill, but whether he was shaking because of the cold or because of the rising horror that he now knew why and how his nose had been broken three years ago, he could not say. 

Shame had flushed over him as he’d jumped and twisted away from the sudden weight of a wool coat on his back, but Piotr had not given him a pitying look or asked what was wrong. “Memories are coming back, mm?” He’d asked, straightening the lapels on his own coat. “That is a hard time to be an initiate.”

Piotr stood next to him as Lou’s breathing finally started to slow, humming something small and tuneless. That never would have happened in Amity, he realized with a small amount of horror. In Amity, everything was a song and your whole life was a melody that you had to sing out and project and Lou’s mouth tasted bile. He didn’t want to remember that. He didn’t want to know about Amity and his life there. Somewhere inside of him, he knew that once he did, the memories of someone, their face fuzzy to him but the feeling of betrayal strong in his chest, would come back as well. 

Lou had let someone he loved down. He had been a bad kid and a bad person and he had screwed everything up and he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to survive remembering it all again. As if he’d drifted into his own mind, the realization that Piotr’s broad hand was on his shoulder and that he was speaking had startled him into realizing that he was crying. His sobs were deep and hoarse and made him sound like the toads that would sing at night around the orchards and anxiety beat through him again as he realized that he hadn’t remembered toads yesterday.

Piotr’s hand gripped his shoulder again and Lou’s sobs were stopped up short from the surprise of the quick burst of pain. Mind filled with nothing but dim surprise, he looked over at the tall dark haired man with his jaw slackened.

“My sister died because of an accident, but I had always thought it was my own fault.” Piotr said, voice deep and calm as the peal of the bell that signalled the end of an Amity day. “I was born Amity, like you. She got too close to the tractor, and I tried to get it off of her but. It was not possible. When my memories came back, all I could see was her blood and the sound of it.”

“How did. How did you.” Lou tried to choke his words out, but they had lodged into his panic tight throat.

Piotr gripped his hand again, face serene as the moon the shone down on them. “I worked. I did what I could for the others here until I fell into bed each night so tired that I couldn’t think or even dream of her. But, more importantly? I gave up my control over my life, and sunk into being Abnegation.”

“Does it get better?” Lou asked, voice whisper soft as though he’d rather not hear the answer.

Piotr’s smile was sweet and calming. “Come.” He murmured. “We will find you work. Leave you tired by the end of the day, yes?”

Lou had wanted to respond back with the truth, which was that Piotr had given him no answer. But, as one of the clotheslines in the moonlight caught his eye, he stilled. “Yes. That sounds good.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

His mother was a flower in bloom in the large Candor cafeteria. All around her were the carefully coiffed Candor parents who’d not been allowed to see their children since Choosing day, a few Erudite in thick eyeglasses and blue jeans and a small group of Abnegation in long gray robes. 

“Teddy!” She exclaimed and he couldn’t, for anything, hold back the tears that prickled in the corner of his eyes as she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. The smell of patchouli and ganja wafted up from her thick, frizzy blonde hair and the chunky red bangles around her wrists clamored in a joyous clang. She felt so thin under his hands that he instinctively eased up on his hug, the irrational fear that she would snap under his hands seeming like too much of a reality.

“Have the doctors said anything?” He asked, pulling back with wide eyes as he searched her face, willing her to give him an answer, a real one. 

“I’m fine, Teddy!” She said, voice sweet and merry and brassy and Teddy would have let it go, had he not noticed the jerk in the right side of her mouth when he’d asked her the question. 

Jean Paul, despite his cold demeanor, had been a surprisingly good and entertaining teacher. From him, they’d been versed in the ethics of the legal system and when to pry into someone’s life, and when privacy for a non Candor faction individual took precedence over the obvious superiority of truth and all things. But that had come after they’d been taught about how to determine if someone was lying.

“Unless one is a sociopath,” Jean Paul had drawled, “they will feel guilt over the fact that they have lied. Regardless of whether the lie was done in good intentions, so as to not make someone worry or to spare someone’s feelings, humans will still feel a sense of guilt for having denied their true nature and let a lie pass as truth. And it is in that moment of guilt before a lie is said that the body betrays the mind and gives the world a signal that something is not right.”

They’d been drilled over what was a tell and what was a facial tic. Videos and demonstrations had been done in such numbers that almost all of the initiates wanted to vomit at the very word ‘tell’, but by the end of those two weeks, they’re become as good at any Candor born at being able to spot a tell. And while Teddy was not as good at spotting a tell as Billy or Sooraya, he did well enough.

“Mom.” Teddy tried to put as much strength in his voice as he could, only to wince as he felt his timbre shiver as he spoke. “Tell me the truth.”

She had been vomiting when Teddy had made his choice. Her skin, nut brown under the her work in the orchards, had taken on a sickly, pallid note and food hadn’t seemed to stick to her bones as she began to look more and more like a tree in autumn that had shed its leaves to prepare for a long winter.

When she’d started to complain of being weary, he’d hoped, at first, that she was pregnant. After all, she’d had him at 17, and it wasn’t too unheard of for someone to get pregnant at her age. He’d briefly considered asking her who the potential fathers might be, but when she came back one day with a bag full of Erudite drugs and an inhaler but had continued to get sleepier and more and more out of breath from doing nothing, he’d known that Beltane had not smiled on her this year as it had for the night that Teddy was conceived. There would be no gift that his mother could present to an Amity man, to let him know that his seed had been planted and that the fruits of her harvest would soon be reaped. Not that Teddy’s own father had accepted the gift that his mother his offered, but Teddy had held out hope that she’d found someone who could give her more than just a child and would be able to give her love as well.

But, as he could see from the wry smile on her face, that was certainly not likely to be what had happened. “Honey. I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

Her hands were cold to the touch but he grasped them anyway, hoping that his touch would warm them. And she was gasping for breath, even now, and her hands were bloated and tender to the touch. She was lying to him.

“I love you, Mom.” He replied, unable to look at her. 

“I love you more than anything.” She said in response, and the truth of that statement made his heart hurt even more.

\-----------------------------------

Tommy, to be honest, was less than excited about Visiting Day. After all, the Shepards had abandoned him long ago and the Kaplans had Billy to worry about. But, as he’d trudged out to the Dauntless cafeteria, he saw a familiar head of sharply cut chestnut hair and the broad smile of Rebecca Kaplan. 

He’d rushed up to her, stopping briefly in his tracks as he stared at her. She was shorter than he remembered, though maybe he had simply grown. Either way, his head had swam as he looked down at her and later, neither would be able to say who had been more surprised when he’d given her a hug.

“Thomas.” She said, voice warm as she hugged him back and kept him from pulling back too soon. “I have missed you.”

By the time that she had let him go, Tommy didn’t dare look up from the stone of the Dauntless floor. “I didn’t think you’d come.” He blurted out, the words spilling from him as though he’d chosen Candor all along. “I thought you’d go see Billy.”

“We didn’t adopt you only to leave you at your Visiting Day all alone.” Rebecca reached up to fuss with his white blond hair, brushing out the stubborn locks of hair with her fingers. “You are our son too, after all. Jeff and the boys are at Candor headquarters and I’m here, since we were both worried about having Andy and Mike seeing this Dauntless compound and getting ideas.”

Tommy couldn’t help the grin that came across his face. “I totally would have sent them home with tattoos.”

Rebecca let out a long suffering sigh before taking a seat on one of the cafeteria tables. “Precisely my worry. Could you picture it? Two little Erudite boys with their faces marked up and piercings everywhere. Though, I must be honest, the eyebrow and lip piercings do suit you. Though the love bites on your neck make me feel better about how you are fitting in here, if I’m going to be honest. You’ve found a nice… person then?”

Tommy felt the flush rise into his cheeks and the urge to bite his lower lip and feel his teeth clank against the snake bites there was potent. But they were still healing and he was under firm orders to not mess with them too badly. The marks on his neck and elsewhere that Rebecca thankfully could not see were because of the piercings, as Kate and Eli had taken the sight of him looking like such a Dauntless well. Very well, in fact. “Two people.” He corrected her. “And yeah, they’re…. nice.”

To her credit, Rebecca only gave him a smile in return. “I’m glad to hear it.” She said and Tommy was a little surprised to hear the depth of fondness in her voice as he sat down next to her and leaned against the table behind him. “You were never suited to Erudite. But this? It does suit you. Though, I am very interested in this sudden interest in polyamory. Is it something common to the Dauntless then? I could see that, as the rates of death are a bit higher than anyone else and the societal need to have an increased amount of family members available to raise offspring would be beneficial.”

He couldn’t help the grin that flourished across his face, the pull of the still healing piercings only a little annoying. “Your Erudite is showing.”

“And? That was the faction that I chose. Truthfully, once you are out of initiation, I’d be very interested in interviewing you on this new relationship, as well as other Dauntless members on the subject. They do tend to be very open on surveys when it comes down to topics like human sexuality, in stark contrast to the Abnegation.” She gave her head a little shake, as though forcefully pushing the idea for a study to the side. Her hand was gentle as she reached over to lightly to rest it on Tommy’s shoulder. “But please, tell me. Are you doing well here?”

“Yeah.” He couldn’t help but to smile at her. “You heard about Billy?”

“Have I heard anything about Billy?” She rephrased, correcting in grammar with a stern look before breaking into a small smile. “Of course, it would be completely against a doctor’s rules to look into the medical records of their son who had changed factions and to ask about him to those who worked in his faction. But if I had, and I haven’t, then I would be able to tell you that by all accounts, he’s doing very well and has been throwing himself into his studies.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t have asked about that. But if you did, that’d be cool to hear. I hope the fucker is enjoying being in the place where he can spout out whatever and everyone’ll love him for it.”

Rebecca’s fingers were warm as she began to comb her fingers through his fine hair. “Of course. He’s always taken after me a bit too much. I do see that Kessler has joined Dauntless, how are you doing with that?”

He couldn’t help the snort that left him as he motioned over to where Santo’s terrifying mother was alternating between scolding and hugging her deeply chagrined son, her voice full of tears and emotion no matter what emotion was pouring through her. “Good, since Santo over there beat his ass for talking about fags. Turns out that not everyone’s cool with that shit.”

After a bit, Tommy had scooted over a bit to allow Rebecca easier access to combing out his hair. His own adopted mother had been deeply against being too familial but Rebecca was firmly in the camp of psychology that taught that human touch was both necessary and logical to provide. He would be hard pressed to admit that he appreciated it, but that didn’t stop him from feeling more relaxed now than he had been for a while.

Rebecca hummed, bobbing her head finally. “Good.” She said with a firm voice. “I don’t recommend a violent approach in lieu of talking out the issue of deeply ingrained bigotry, but I’m rather sure that he deserved it.”

Tommy didn’t hold his smirk. “Yup.” He drawled, before a thought burst into his head. “How’s David doing?”

“Oh David.” She gave him a fond smile. “I’m sure that his parents would be thrilled to attribute his success to your current absence, but I feel that he’d be doing as well regardless. He’s very Erudite, of course. I haven’t seen much of him but his parents have been bragging a good deal about how he’s at the top of the IQ rankings among the initiates, which rankles the Yorkes to no end.”

“So he’s probably not getting any sleep and is even more lame now than he was before.”

“Probably.” Rebecca agreed. “I’m sure he misses you. That boy is a classic overachiever, I have no doubt that he could use your brand of spontaneity in his life. How you two got along as well as you did was of no small amount of surprise to me, though I’m sure his parents were much less amused.”

“Probably.” Rebecca agreed. “I’m sure he misses you. That boy is a classic overachiever, I have no doubt that he could use your brand of spontaneity in his life. How you two got along as well as you did was of no small amount of surprise to me, though I’m sure his parents were much less amused.”

Tommy let out a disgusted snort. "You mean that you think they actually noticed that I was even around him?"

"Only when you caused him to lose his perfect attendance record."

"You do know that was totally his idea, right?"

"But was it his idea to hack the computer lab so that the screensavers consisted of an animated Tony Stark doing a very inappropriate dance?"

Tommy snickered, leaning his head on his shoulder as he listened to her talk about the younger kids and her work, feeling really and truly homesick for the first time in a while.

\------------------------------------

As far as Billy Kaplan was concerned, the fact that he was happy to see his little brothers was incontrovertible proof that distance did make the heart grow fonder. Even as they badgered him about that weird thing on his forehead and asking if he'd caught any criminals now that he was a Candor and if he knew that Andy was lying when he said said his favorite color was pink (he was, his favorite color was blue), he couldn't hold back the grin that spread across his face.

“You look good, Billy.” His father said, chest out with pride as he looked around the Merciless Mart’s tall ceilings. “And look at where you ended up. Your mother is exceptionally proud that you’ve come back to her old stomping grounds.”  
Billy brightened at that, looking around suddenly for Rebecca. “Where is she? I was hoping to talk to her about some of the psychological work that they’ve been teaching us, I figured she would be able to clear some things up for me.”

Jeff Kaplan gave his son a half smile, shrugging his shoulders as he watched as his young sons clambered over their brother. “She went to visit Tommy. We figured he might need a gentler touch so she went to Dauntless and I came here with the boys.”

“I wanted to go to Dauntless.” Mike whined, accentuating how he felt with a stomp of his foot. He would have gotten _tattoos_ and it would have been _so cool_.” Andy nodded in agreement, his lower lip set. “So cool.” He echoed.

Billy looked up at his Dad, unable to hold in his grin as he saw the tortured look on Jeff’s face that spoke volumes about how long this argument had been going on for with the boys. “You know Dad, you still have time. I sure you could still take the boys there….”

Their eyes went wide and they turned to Jeff with hope suddenly back in their eyes. “No!” Jeff said sternly as he looked down at the both of them. “Absolutely not.”

Mike levelled a glare, joined in the attempt to intimidate by Andy, but Jeff Kaplan had grown wise to their ways and stood his ground. The boys broke first, as normal, and Andy suddenly booked it for the kids corner, distracted by the puppy that one of the Candor parents had brought down.

“Thank you so much for that.” Jeff groaned out as he took a seat next to his oldest son. “I swear, your mother and I won’t have a moment’s peace about how we didn’t let them go and get themselves killed with those Dauntless hooligans.”

“Hooligans, Dad? Really?” Billy couldn’t help but laugh as he did his best old man impression and grumped out, “Those darned kids and their running and train jumping, no manners, none of ‘em.”

Jeff snorted, a smile crossing over his clean shaven face. “That’s right.” His sigh was long suffering, but with an absent minded shrug, he turned his gaze to Billy. “How are you doing, kid? Really.”

As his throat tightened a little, Billy found himself having to look down to the pale linoleum of the table. The table in their kitchen back in Erudite had been lacquered with blue and white geometric designs, with little nicks and scratches in it that wrote out a timeline of their family's history. There was a small burn from the time that Billy had decided to take apart one of the lamps and turned it back on at the wrong time and sent sparks through their apartment. There were stubborn stains from when Andy had colored with permanent markers and not thought to put something under his paper to keep the ink from bleeding through. And a chunk missing in the side marked the time that Mike had been pushed by Andy and fallen against the table and knocked one of his baby tooth out on the corner. And underneath the table were the ridges of hard old gum, Tommy's addition to the family heirlooms.

Everything had made sense at that table. He had parents who loved him, little brothers that he loved despite how incredibly annoying they could be and he had Tommy who was, well, Tommy. Billy Kaplan the Erudite had know who he was at that table. But Billy Kaplan the Candor wasn't sure yet at this one.

"It's strange." He admitted, wishing that he didn't have the metal plate at his temples that kept him from painting a sunnier picture for his father. "What I'm learning is pretty interesting, and I like that it's a lot less stuffy here. But it's." He scrubbed at his hair, eyes pressing shut as he tried to think of the right words to say.

"It's not what you're used to?" Jeff offered.

"Definitely." Billy breathed out, letting his shoulders slump a bit. "It's all completely unfamiliar. It feels like I'm walking in a minefield sometimes, just trying to make sure I don't step in something and watch everything get ruined."

"You know, when your mother chose Erudite and came over from Candor, she felt the same way." Jeff crossed his arms and settled them onto the table, leaning forward a bit. "She liked Erudite just fine, but she didn't exactly have an easy time of it."

Billy blinked in surprise at that revelation. The faction that his parents had come from had never really crossed his mind. To him, they were and had eternally been Erudite. Not to say that it didn't make sense, because it absolutely did. Rebecca was honest to a fault, still.

"You know, your mother and I were young once." Jeff's grin was fond. "We chose Erudite at the same time and I thought she was the most magnificent person I'd ever met. Brilliant and brave and gorgeous. And somehow, she didn't think I was so bad either. But the differences in birth factions were pretty tough. We got into a huge fight when she asked what I thought of some of her hypotheses and I soft pedaled and didn't point out some of the flaws in her methods. She didn't speak to me for weeks, but I had no idea that she took that to mean that I didn't respect her enough to give her the cold, hard truth. There are all of these little differences that you have to make yourself adjust to, and that can be one of the hardest things that you have to do."

Billy ran his finger along the smooth surface of the table, brow furrowing just a bit. “How did you deal with that? The differences, I mean.”

Billy knew the face that his father was giving him. The one that said ‘I know that something is going on, and I still love you for it.’ And it only made him more homesick. “Well.” Jeff said, voice gentle. 

“When you love someone.” Jeff murmured, “You get to a point where you love them for their faults. Not despite them, but because of it.” 

Jeff gave him a small grin before reaching over to muss his hair, pausing for a moment as he caught something from the other side of the room. “Well! I certainly hadn’t expected to see a patient here today.” 

Billy blinked, brow furrowing a bit. While his father was a cardiologist, he didn’t tend to take on patients often, and definitely not ones that were ambulatory enough to come to their child’s Visiting Day. But that was what came with the territory of specializing in dealing with congestive heart failure. “Really? Where?”

Billy’s heart plummeted as his father pointed right to where Teddy and his mother were speaking. “There. Miss Altman, I’m guessing that’s the son she’s told me so much about?”

“Yeah.” He bit down on his lower lip. “That’s Teddy, he’s my roommate, actually. I’m guessing, since she’s seeing you, that she doesn’t have long?”

Jeff nodded, pausing to lean back a bit in his chair before giving Billy a look that spoke volumes. 

\--------------------------------

From the moment from the moment that Lou walked into the room, he knew that something was wrong. Almost as though a snake had slithered into the dovecote, the gathered Abnegation looked unsettled. Even as they spoke with their initiate children, they eyed a corner of the room.

Whoever was in that corner was waiting for him. That much was clear. But who? A shiver crossed through him at the thought of seeing his father so soon, not in his Amity clothes but in the dirty mismatched uniform of the Factionless. It was enough of a horror to make him want to turn tail and run as much as it made him want to hurry and see him again, but Lou kept his pace as steady as he could. 

Of the things that you learned from an abusive situation, how to act normal and smile like everything was doing fine was vital. And subsequently, Lou was very, very good at it. After all, he’d been able to convince himself that everything was just fine for long enough to get through his day to day back in Amity without losing his cool. Another trait that you learned was how to read those around you and gauge their emotional state. For the suspicious, you could know to smile wider and act happier around them. For the preoccupied, you could hide yourself in the flow of their day to day and hide in the crowd. And for the angered, you knew to be as good as you could be in order to not make them more angry. And when they were mad enough to hit, you knew to get away.

The crowd around him was upset, which was definitely rare in Abnegation. Faces of disgust, worry and protective anger flickered across people’s faces as Lou slipped through them, feeling the dread rise in him as he walked to the only person who would want to see him and invoke this reaction. In the corner, he would have to find his father, dirty and probably drunk and as much as he wanted to run, he couldn’t.

A feeling of equal parts grateful joy and disappointment hit him as he finally stepped out of the throng. This was not his father. Definitely not. But there was no reason for Jean Paul to have such a defensive look on his face as he glared out sullenly at the Abnegation members and there was certainly no reason for the Abnegation to be reacting like this. 

Could it be the way he was dressed? While his outfit was certainly flashy, a smartly trimmed suit with gleaming cufflinks and an expertly folded pocket square, he was dressed no differently than any other Candor. And Lou couldn’t see how Jean Paul’s actions would cause that amount of disapproval, as simply sitting in an Abnegation auditorium was not something to be considered a declaration of war. The only thing that Lou could think of was out of place Jean Paul looked, all stark contrast and rough edges, a light cutting through the fog. 

But Lou couldn’t be sure. And so, it would be best if they did what had always worked for Lou in the past, and get away. 

Jean Paul had caught sight of him and his face changed from all fight to only being a little sullen, still haughty but also genuinely pleased. “Ah, I see that you continue to get even taller, even when outside of the Amity orchards. It is surely a miracle, I had been almost been convinced you could only be so big through use of fertilizer.”

Lou grinned widely, not giving the slightest bit of damn about how Jean Paul hadn’t seen him for months but had still managed to get in a crack in on his height. Instead, he gave Jean Paul a tight hug with little worry to the Abnegation who were now watching them out of the side of their eyes. “I can’t believe you came!” He chirped, giving Jean Paul a slightly tighter hug then he knew the Candor man liked, but just happy enough to see a friendly face to not mind.

Jean Paul did looked annoyed at having been accosted, but he simply straightened out his suit coat as he said, a little bit louder than was likely necessary, “I was alone on my Visiting Day and it hurt a great deal. I would not allow the same thing to happen to you.”

This had upset the Abnegation and Lou could hear a rumble of conversation break out behind him. Why would they be concerned about whether a Candor had been alone on his visiting day or why that made him come to visit Lou? Nothing about this was making any sense. “Do you think we should maybe… talk somewhere else?” He asked motioning with his hand to the eyes that were set on them. 

“Please. Preferably outside so I can smoke.” He gave the surrounding Abnegation a haughty look before turning and heading out the side door. Lou followed, grabbing his baggy grey overcoat and slinging it on as he followed Jean Paul down through the halls and outside to where the gardens lay fallow and the leafless branches of the old oaks shook in the wind. 

Jean Paul wasted no time, pulling out a long dark cigarette from a steel case and coaxing it to life with a silver lighter. The pull he took from the cigarette seemed to lift some great weight from his shoulders as he exhaled a great plume of smoke. “Merde.” He muttered. “Abnegation, of course you had to choose Abnegation.”

Lou squirmed inside of his large coat, finally pulling on his woolen hat, huge grey pom pom drooping to the side. He always felt that he needed to look up to Jean Paul, despite the fact that they were the same height and Lou had a good deal of weight on the Candor. Jean Paul gave off an air of authority, which meant that it took Lou a few moments of adjusting to the cold wind before blurting out, “Have you seen my Dad?”

“Some, yes. Though it was not why I came, in case you were hoping.” Jean Paul ashed his cigarette, his expression much more familiar to Lou than the trapped animal he’d seen indoors. “He has fallen in with a few other ex Amity factionless. He’s living on the streets and judging by how he smells, he has found access to some kind of moonshine.”

Lou screwed his eyes shut, trying to tell himself that he only did so to protect himself from the biting wind. “Have you been able to find anyone who can help?”

“An Erudite psychologist, yes. She works with the Amity a good deal. In fact, had you not objected so thoroughly, I’d have arranged for you to have sessions with her yourself. But Lou, I have tried speaking with your father and have told him of the offer-”

“But you can only lead a horse to water, you can’t make him drink.” Lou finished, wiping at his eyes. He reached down to feel the wood grain of the leaf as he tried to accept the uprising of pain and anger and hurt in his gut, without much success. “Still.” He said, voice a croaking shell of what it normally was, “All I can have is hope.”

“Lou.”

Jean Paul’s voice was sharp, even over the howling wind and Lou obediently looked over to him, feeling too raw and open to be alive and this exposed. Jean Paul levelled his icy blue stare on Lou then, seeming to know every little fear and terror that ran through his mind.

“You have more than hope. You have me. You have your Faction, who will truly mean more to you than your blood and family, as strange as that may be to consider. And beyond that, you will always have the truth, eh? Do you believe me?”

Lou stared at Jean Paul, a jaw shaking shiver slipping through him as memories coalesced and became more focused and clear in his mind.

When an Amity member had walked into Lou and his father’s shared apartment and found Lou’s arm broken and Louis Sadler Sr. standing over him, cheeks flushed with alcohol and rage, Lou’s life had broken apart. All of the delicate fences that he’d put around himself and his father had been shattered at that moment. All the lies meant nothing because Lou had yelped and now his father was taken away and the legal authorities had been called in.

While the painkillers had numbed the pain in his arm considerably, they had done nothing to make Lou drop the shelters around him that he had spent so long developing. Amity members, one after one, had come into his hospital room to cajole and plead with him to say what his father had been done. But he knew that by speaking, he would only be hastening his father’s exile. And while Lou was a terrible son and an awful person, he wasn’t as bad as that.

He’d almost fallen asleep when the door opened again. Lou hadn’t bothered to turn over from where he had curled in the fetal position in his infirmary bed. But this experience went differently. Instead of an Amity coming close to touch his brow or leg, the person had sat down in a chair in the corner of the room and stayed there. And instead of speaking soothing, calm words, he only heard a faint rasp. 

After a while, curiosity won out and Lou finally unfurled from his position long enough to catch a peek. There in the corner was a Candor man, pale and as similar to a silvery birch tree as Lou had ever seen. In his hand was a rasp and his focus was diligent as he filed down his nails. He didn’t even seem to notice Lou moving, or at least didn’t seem to care.

Lou laid his head against the pillows, frowning a little. His mind had begun to race then, trying to figure out why a Candor would be in his room. The need for answers built in his mind until he finally unfurled and looked at the man and waited.

The rasp of the file continued for a moment more as the man examined the nail of his index finger, only setting the file down in his lap until the nail met his expectation. The Candor man looked up and met Lou’s eyes, voice quiet and matter of fact. “You know what faction I am a part of?”

Lou nodded and the man continued. “Then you know that we do not lie?”

As Lou nodded again, the man uncrossed his legs and then crossed them again, face calm as a lake in the middle of winter as he turned back to his nails. “Then you know that I will not lie to you. So I will tell you now, there is nothing that you have done to merit the treatment that you have been given. You love your father and have been a better son than most, as you have given him so many opportunities to change. But he can’t, not without help. And since he has been caught, and that is no fault of your own, there are two options. You can stay quiet and I will have to stay quiet and your father will be exiled from Amity or killed for betraying their doctrines. Or you can speak with me about what happened and I will do all in my power that I can to get your father help and keep your family together.”

Lou stared at the Candor, hardly able to breathe, much less respond. Instinct eventually won out as he said, “I fell. My father hasn’t done anything.”

The man nodded, letting out a deep sigh as he picked up his file again. “You should sleep.” He murmured. “I’ll be here in the morning.”

And when Lou woke, arm feeling on fire under his itchy cast, the man was in the same seat, dark circles under his eyes. He’d given Lou a nod as the Amity nurse handed over some painkillers and a tray of Amity breakfast and hadn’t said a word. But even the food in his stomach couldn’t bolster Lou against the silent calm of the Candor, and the ice finally broke. “I need to know who you are first. And if you can help.” He murmured, using his roll to sop up the remnants of gravy on his plate. 

The man looked up, still looking dignified despite his long night. “I am Jean Paul. And I am your advocate in the eventual proceedings of abuse against your father. To be fair, I am slightly biased as I did know your father before he sunk this deeply into his alcoholism, and he helped me a great deal when my adopted daughter died of the same virus that took your brother. I want your father to get the psychological help that he has not yet received, and to see you reunited with a man that I know was good. If this conflict of interest is not to your liking, I will gladly resign and you will be assigned another advocate.”

Lou did not pick another advocate. In fact, he had come to rely on Jean Paul more than anyone else, as he was the only person who seemed to speak the truth, whether painful or inconvenient. And when the decision had been made by the entirety of Amity and Lou’s father was banished, Jean Paul had been the one who’d been by Lou without any pity or any scorn, only the blade edge of his honesty.

“I believe you.” Lou said, voice almost drowned out by the winter wind as he leaned against the concrete wall of the Abnegation headquarters. Speaking in a surprising honesty, he added, “I always have.”

Jean Paul looked him over for a moment, as if trying to judge the veracity of that statement when he surely knew that Lou was speaking the truth before even Lou had. He took another drag of his cigarette, words seeming to follow his smoke, “You’ll survive this.”

Lou continued to play with the edges of the leaf in his pocket. While not a curious or scholarly person, a question nagged at him. With his bravery waning, he took a deep breath and let the question spill out as he let the breath out, “Why did Abnegation react like that to you?”

Jean Paul proceeded to choke on his cigarette smoke, glaring at the groundskeeper who’d been moving towards the deadened gardened beds. A long sigh left Jean Paul and to Lou’s eyes, it looked as though he would have grown spikes if he could to keep the world away. After another long pull of the cigarette, Jean Paul’s voice was soft. “Do you know the front of this building we’re in? The tall part, with the arch?”

Lou nodded, brows furrowed as he watched Jean Paul curl in on himself, though only slightly, while taking another drag from his cigarette as though trying to gather himself. “My sister.” He murmured, “My twin sister. We were adopted into Abnegation. She went first and chose Abnegation. I chose Candor. That night, she announced that she could fly and jumped off of that roof. And to many in Abnegation, my choice was what killed her.”

To say that Lou hadn’t expected this would be putting it mildly. Shrinking back against the wall, he felt the grooves of the leaf. “What was her name?”

“Jeanne Marie.” Jean Paul murmured. 

As the ash of Jean Paul’s cigarette fell to the cement, his eyes seem to die. Lou wanted to shrink back, to nuzzle back at the comforting teat of Abnegation but with trembling knees, he looking at the one person who’d only answered with him the truth. He had to know. “Why didn’t you chose to stay in Abnegation?”

“Because I’m an unrepentant homosexual.”

Lou blinked, looking over at Jean Paul as questions swam through his head. “Did you hurt anyone?”

The look on Jean Paul’s face was answer enough as he recoiled. “I do nothing that is not fully consensual.” With pursed lips, Jean Paul took long hit of his cigarette. 

His forehead crinkled as Lou stared at Jean Paul. "Then why would they care? The Abnegation forgive everyone. Not that I think it's bad to be, um, like that, but even if they think it's bad, it doesn't make any sense for them to be that worried about it."

Jean Paul dropped the butt of his cigarette to the ground, neatly extinguishing the butt with the sole of his black leather shoe. He lit another before speaking, though whether Jean Paul actually needed one or just needed the chance to gather himself, Lou didn't know. "I said unrepentant." Jean Paul murmured around the butt of the cigarette.

"I'm sure they still throw this quote around, 'So long as your repentance is pure, no sin is too great to keep a man from grace'. In other words, an Abnegation member can do any manner of horrible things, from murder to thievery to molestation and, so long as they feel guilty about what they did and confess, all is forgiven. However, if one does something that is considered to be a sin and does not let himself suffer through guilt about their actions, he is an abomination and unable to be forgiven. I refused to feel guilty or wrong for what I knew to be right, and for that, I am seen as worse to this faction than a child molester." 

Pursing his lips together so tightly that they went white for a moment, Jean Paul let out a deep exhale as he glanced over to Lou. "I do understand why you chose Abnegation, Louis. Please do not take my condemnation of Abnegation's stance on my sexuality as a condemnation of you as a person, or even on the whole of this Faction. You need the peace that you will find here and hopefully, you'll be able to grant yourself some forgiveness."

Lou let out a shaky breath that he hadn't been aware that he'd been holding. He tried to think of a response, something to reassure Jean Paul that he wouldn't turn from him now that he was in Abnegation or how grateful he was to see a familiar face or how he hated that this might be the last time in months that he saw the man. But the words didn't come, not any that were good enough to get across what he needed to. Instead, he let go of the leaf in his hand and slipped it out of his pocket. Jean Paul's fingers were red and a little puffy from the cold air and when Lou laced his fingers between them, he could feel their chill leeching into his once warm fingers. 

But he stayed, holding hands with Jean Paul in silence as the winter wind rolled through the Abnegation compound, and he hoped that his message had gotten through.

\------------------------------------

David's parents had been as effusive in their praise of them as they had always been. His father had given him a firm handshake, his mother had given him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and a brief, stiff hug. That had been the extent of their familial gestures. They had bragged a bit about how the other parents' children weren't doing anywhere near as well in the IQ rankings as David and how that was just destroying the Yorkes, but how neither of them had ever expected anything differently from David.

Never ones to overstay their welcome, despite the fact that Visiting Day was supposed to be an all day affair, they decided after a half hour that David surely must be much too busy to be chit chatting with his parents, and wouldn't his time be spent more efficiently if he used this time to study? It would give him a leg up on the competition if he turned to his books while the others wasted their time with their families.

David had developed a way to deal with his parents that had served him well. By settling a look of cold indifference onto his face and running through the elements of the periodic table in order and listing through their relevant uses, he managed to keep himself from lashing out at them for being so damned dull. Once he had been in a facetious mood last year and had tried to think about how his parents would have reacted if they'd known half of the trouble that he and Tommy had gotten up to, but he had smiled and his parents had grown concerned that he was so happy while hearing about their old professor's death. So he stuck with the periodic table, nodded in agreement with his parents' excuses to leave and showed them out without so much of a hint of what he actually thought of their idea.

As the door shut behind them, he weaved through the milling Erudite families and towards one of the huge glass windows that lined the room. The view looked out onto the marsh, the remnants of a once drained lake that had been dredged by Erudite in order to erect the electrified fence that surrounded Chicago. A deer was carefully picking it's way through the silty field, the only creature that seemed to be braving the weather as cloud boiled at the sky and brewed up snow. The wind seemed to bring a promise of winter with it, and nature had taken the hint as it prepared itself for the worst.

"It looks as though we may have our first snowfall of the season." 

David jumped at sudden intrusion of the melodic voice to his left. The blonde woman who gave him a wry smile before joining him at the window was undoubtedly stunning, her expertly coiffed blonde hair framing a face that could have been cut from marble. Her painted lips quirked up, voice smooth as silk as she drawled, "That looked like such a lovely visit with your parents, David. It seemed like you were able to get out a total of three words, which is such an improvement over normal, isn't it?"

David couldn't help the smile that darted over his face, but he did try to hide it as he forced his features into a stoic expression. "Why Instructor Frost, are you implying that the Alleyne family is anything besides logical and efficient? I would be offended if I didn't know better."

"I would never." She purred in response crossing her arms under her ample bosom as she joined him in his sightseeing. "I would, however, like to take the time to commend you on the work that you've been putting in. The coding that you were putting together last night was delightfully clever. None of the components that you utilized were all that novel, or if they were then they were ones that you'd obviously seen elsewhere and co-opted for your own use, but they way you put them together was truly innovative."

 _'Damn'_ , David thought as his stomach twisted. "Is that what you thought? Last night, your only comment was that I had over complicated the process."

She let out a small, noncommittal snort as she began to fiddle with one of her large diamond earrings. "Would you have preferred that I told Mister Stein that you had lifted what he'd been working on for the past few weeks and improved it in less time than it took him to finish his dinner? I doubt it. And I wouldn't have preferred that either." 

After crossing her arms again, she gave her hair a little toss and spoke with a voice that was as alluring as a coral snake. "You are no innovator, David Alleyne. Your particular realm of genius lies in your ability to view the ideas around you and weave them into a coherent, efficient whole. In short, you are a born leader, needing no original thought but those of your underlings. With this in mind, might I strongly urge you to dust the chip off of your shoulder and brush up on social niceties? Otherwise you will alienate those who you could utilize, which would be a terrible waste."

Glancing over at her from the side of his eye, David let out a little snort. "You transferred in from Candor, didn't you."

Cocking her head to the side, she gave him a lazy wink. "Why David, however did you guess? I'm sure it could have nothing to do with the fact that I don't quite see the point in avoiding something if it can get brought up and handled with much more propriety than simply letting the idea lay fallow. Such as the fact that you are isolating yourself from your fellow initiates, which happens to be a spectacularly bad idea for someone of your skill set."

David had to fight the urge to roll his eyes at that. While it was true that he not exactly been warm to his fellow initiates, that didn't mean that he'd been rude to them. His project was simply one that favored solitude and besides that, he was fine being alone. In fact, he preferred it.

And he certainly was not missing Tommy. If he was, it was strictly the normal amount that one friend would miss the other. And besides, even if he was moping a little, it wasn't as though it would change anything. Tommy had almost certainly found a replacement for David, and David didn't need to find a replacement for that annoying pain in his ass.

"He's not in your Faction anymore. You need to accept that, stop pouting, and get on your life. We are an essential function to this city's survival, Alleyne, and I expect you to start acting like it."

David's spine stiffened as he froze in place, more than a little creeped out by the fact that Instructor Frost seemed able to read minds. Anger and indignance then flooded his mind and he opened his mouth to retort before pausing.

She was right. Tommy was gone, and he wasn't coming back to Erudite. And the sooner he accepted that, the better. 

He licked his lips, looking out at the marsh for a moment before giving her a nod. "I'll take that into consideration, ma'am."

Emma's hand was gentle as she pressed her palm against his forearm, the movement wafting the crisp and clean tang of her lilac perfume until it filled his sense of smell. "See that you do." And with a smile, she was off, presumably to frighten some other initiate.

David stared at the marsh as he tried to decide what to do next. Should he study? Or maybe he should try to make friends. The idea wasn't all that appealing as he'd been informed that he had a tendency to be a 'grade A douchebag', in Tommy's words. To Instructor Frost's credit, he was giving her advice a good deal of weight, which was why he'd almost missed the movement in the cottonwood trees.

It was likely another deer, but the distraction was welcome and David tapped his glasses as he increased their magnification a tad. He ended up being surprisingly glad that he didn't have handheld binoculars as he would have likely dropped them in surprise.

The man running through the trees was dressing in green and gold clothes, which was odd enough. Most Factionless wore cast offs from the Factions, and none of the Factions would wear green. But that had not been as surprising as the fact that his face was incredibly familiar. He had the same aquiline nose, the same defined jaw and the same pale shock of hair as Tommy, but the eeriest part was the smirk on his face that could have been a mirror of Tommy's when an especially troublesome idea struck him.

As the man jogged out of sight, David pulled out his notepad to jot down the direction and time that he was heading in, all the while cursing his luck. 

Just when he needed Tommy out of his life, he may as well have just jogged back in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you'd told me that I would EVER end up shipping Louis Sadler Jr and Jean Paul Beaubier, I would have assumed you were drunk. I'm still surprised about how I'm actually considering it, since it's... nothing that I would have guessed and it frankly makes no sense in any other context than in this fic.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long update. I got stuck on a part and once I got past it, whoosh! The words slipped right outta me. More notes at the bottom.

Gertrude had barely looked up from her computer. “What do you want, Alleyne.” 

David set the hygrometer contraption down onto the side of her desk, careful to not jostle the knickknacks that surrounded the monitor and keyboard. “Let’s call it a peace offering.”

“Not interested.” 

“You actually might find it useful. It’s a hygrometer with a built in misting system to correct for fluctuations in humidity, with variables to cover ambient temperature. Should be just right for a Tokay gecko, from what I hear.” 

That had caught her attention. As she turned slowly from her monitor to look at him, her eyes were cold. “Listen. I don’t know what you’re talking about. So why don’t you move along and stop trying to distract me from my work.”

David pursed his lips, having expected her to say something along those lines but still annoyed that she had. While it was true that their parents had a particularly bad rivalry, he had liked Gertrude when they’d first Chosen and had been working together to solve the riddles. She was smart and more importantly, had a good head on her shoulders. He needed her on his side, but apparently, she didn’t feel the same about him. 

“Listen Gertrude. I don’t care if you have a pet or not. It’s not my business and I’m pretty sure that it never will be. Sure, you’re thinking that I could probably embarrass you for being sentimental in front of the other initiates, but don’t you think I would have done so already if I intended to do that?”

Her shoulders had tensed when he said her full name, a fact that he caught and quickly tucked away in his mind for later. “Because then you wouldn’t be able to blackmail me first, as everyone would already know.”

“Yes, but that would be a stupid thing to try and blackmail you about, and would be a waste of time. I’m not stupid enough to believe that you wouldn’t sabotage anything that I made you do. Believe it or not, I don’t want to blackmail you or publicly shame you. I want to make an alliance of Initiates who can work well together, to make sure that we all get through this.”

Scorn was all over her face and slipped into her voice. “An alliance? Why, exactly, would you want to work with your competitors?”

“Because you’re better at processing and coding than I am.” He bit out, stomach turning at the fact that he had just admitted a fault. But, he was pleased to note, that had thrown her off. “And Chase is better at ideas and the beginning parts of development than either of us are. And Jonas is, without a doubt, the best person at quality checking and testing that I’ve ever seen. He has no tact, but he’s already found flaws and back doors in some of Stark’s systems.”

Gertrude pushed back from her computer and picked up the hygrometer, brows furrowed as she inspected the device. “So why would we need you?”

“Because I can fill in the blanks.” He kept his hands in his pockets and fought the urge to keep from sounding like an ass. “You’re innovative with your processing, but you get stuck into patterns that you don’t seem to recognize. You need someone who knows enough to be able to recognize when you fall into those traps and where they went wrong or interfered with someone else’s work. Chase is brilliant with development and coming up with ideas that somehow manage to work, but he’s shit at being able to finish up his projects, where I’m good with finishing up a product and making it work, as long as I have the raw tools to work with. And Jonas doesn’t have a whole lot of applicable experience with our systems and needs to be working with people who can take what he’s saying and make the fix in the system.”

“So you’re saying that you want to use our talents to get a better ranking at the end of initiation? How is that supposed to make me want to do work with you, exactly?”

“I’ll do fine on the rankings if I’m on my own.” He shrugged, keeping his voice calm and trying his best to not sound snotty. “So will you. We’ll get through initiation and get decent jobs on IT projects. Nothing special, but it’d be okay. We test well. Chase doesn’t, so he’ll probably end up having to work as a mechanic for the Amity since he’s decent with mechanical work. And Jonas’ lack of functional know-how will hurt him and leave him either kicked out of Erudite, or in a bitchwork processing job that will squander his talents. It’s in the best interests of Erudite for all four of us to do best out of anyone in the rankings and get jobs that’ll actually matter.”

The light of the monitor flicked off of her glasses as she crossed her arms and considered his points. “And why should I believe that you aren’t going to fuck us like Alex did?”

David gave her a wry smile. “I’m not the only one who noticed that his computer has been much more apt to shut down suddenly and wipe all of his data. And that it didn’t start to do that until he ‘accidentally’ dropped the magnet on your hard drive. I’m logical enough to recognize that fucking over your allies is the best way to get ostracized and get sabotaged back.” 

She considered him for a moment more, chewing on one of her nails as her brow furrowed just a bit. “I’ll talk to Chase.”

“Great. Let me know.” He gave her a small smile before turning to leave her workspace. 

“David?”

He turned around in the doorway, blinking at her. “Yes?”

“I hate the name Gertrude. Or Yorke. Call me Gert.”

“Can do.”

\--------------------------------------------------

As Billy pulled the apartment door shut, the strum of guitar notes caught him off guard. None of them had a radio which would occasionally play Amity songs and if the music was being piped in through the comm system, then it should be playing in the living room. And yet, the music only got louder the closer that Billy got to the room that he and Teddy shared.

The guitar in Teddy’s hand was old and had apparently seen better days, but Teddy held it like an old and treasured friend. A sleepy smile drifted across his face as the last rays of the day drifted in through the window and hit the sun bleached highlights that Teddy had developed over years of working in the orchard. His hands were red from the chill of the day but it didn’t seem to affect his dexterity as he picked the strings and coaxed the music out of the old instrument. He made the bed he was sitting on look like a bastion of calm in the world and Billy ached with how much he’d missed Teddy. 

Teddy’s eyes snapped open as Billy shut the door behind him, fingers freezing on the strings as he gave a sheepish grin. “Um. Hey.”

“Hey Teddy.” Billy exhaled, watching the toe of his shoe scuff on the floor for a moment. “So. Was that your mom? Down there, I mean.”

“Yeah! Yeah, that was her. She uh, kinda snuck me my guitar, which I don’t think is t really allowed but. It was cool of her.” Teddy ran his fingers along the neck of the guitar like someone would pet a dog, all fondness. “I’ve missed it.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be a banjo strumming hayseed?”

Teddy gave him a wide grin in response, commencing his playing without needing to look down. “What can I say, I believe in defying stereotypes. Besides, my fingers are way too big for the banjo and I’m better at harmonizing anyway.”

Billy toed off his shoes, grinning back at Teddy as the tense air of the last month seemed to ease a bit. “Makes sense. And uh, by the way.”

Teddy blinked, cocking his head. “Yeah?”

Running a hand through his dark hair, Billy turned to Teddy. “I wanted to apologize for. You know, not talking to you. I know it wasn’t your fault, that serum’s pretty tough stuff.”

The way that Teddy’s eyes crinkled in response, happy and relieved, was enough to make Billy’s heart tug in his chest. The song he’d been playing had paused for a moment, but his fingers picked up the rhythm again. “Oh man, you don’t have to apologize. I’m just glad that you’re talking to me again. I just have to keep remembering that we aren’t in Amity, I guess.”

They shared another smile and all the while that Billy was in the bathroom and changing out of his formal clothes and into thermal underwear, flannel pants and a warm cable knit sweater, he could hear the rolicking beat of Teddy’s guitar and the quiet baritone of his singing voice. By the time that he’d padded back into the room and put on his wool socks, he had even begun to hum along with the song.

While it wasn’t as though the Erudite didn’t have any small pleasures in life, music was not a common one. Someone might have some recorded or a former Amity who’d transferred in might get a few others to join them in few songs around the holidays, but even that was generally frowned upon. After all, it wasn’t as though what they were doing was useful. And while some former Amity might argue that music did have a logical construction to it, the fact was that it just wasn’t logical to waste time on something that frivolous. 

That had even passed over into the Kaplan apartment, which was generally a liberal bastion of good humor in comparison to most of the other Erudite. Rebecca preferred to talk, which now made a good deal of sense to Billy since his father had said she was born Candor. And Jeff was Erudite through and through, much more interested in going over his data than bothering to listen to anything like that. But Billy thought they might like this song, at least.

“Rock me Mama like a wagon wheel,  
Rock me Mama any way you feel,  
Hey Mama rock me.

Rock me Mama like the wind and the rain,  
Rock me Mama like a Dauntless train,  
Hey Mama, rock me.”

Billy turned and leaned against his dresser drawer to watch, foot tapping in time with Teddy’s singing. The grin that Teddy flashed his way was so bright and utterly joyful that it almost hurt. “This part is where someone with a fiddle would go nuts and start improvising. Everyone would be whooping it up and cheering or clapping and eventually, someone would pick up another song and that’d be how the night went.”

Teddy ended the song with one last humming chord, face at once tender and buoyed up. He stayed still like that until the strings stopped vibrating, eyes shut as though he didn’t want the moment to end. But it did, and Teddy leaned forward to settle it into a battered case. 

Billy was stepping over the case and sitting down on the bed next to Teddy before his mind could tell his body that it wasn’t the best of ideas. “So. I never told you, but my dad is a cardiologist.”

“I learned that earlier today.” Teddy leaned back against the wall, his shoulder warm against Billy’s. “Mom said he was nice.”

The fabric of Teddy’s comforter was worn thin from the many Candor initiates who’d been through these rooms, but it felt nice between his fingers as he felt the weft and weave of the cloth. “He is nice.” Billy murmured. “Did your mother say anything? About how she’s doing?”

“What do you think.” Teddy murmured, shoulders sagging back against the wall. “She said she was fine. It was a lie.”

“Are you okay?”

Teddy’s adam’s apple bobbed as he let his head thump back. His voice was a hoarse, tired exhalation, weariness painting his features. "No. I'm not." 

With a soft whine, the lights flickered out, leaving silence in their wake as the hum of the heater followed suit. The Silence stretched between the two of them, the room lonely and quickly becoming more cold. Billy couldn’t help the low whine that left him, rubbing at his face. “Great. And with the snow, it’s going to be hours until the repair technician gets here.”

“Nothing like this happened in Erudite?”

“Please. Our technicians were all right there, whatever went wrong was fixed right away. Besides, when it got too cold, we just headed to the computer labs with our parents, the machines kept everything warm enough.” Billy let his eyes close against the dark, brow furrowed. 

“The girls do what the Amity do.” Teddy murmured. “Pile up and sleep that way.”

“That’s what Darcy said. But something tells me that Sooraya wouldn’t be okay with me joining in, so.”

“You just freeze?”

“Pretty much.” Billy let his head flop over, giving Teddy a serious look, albeit one whose tone was lessened by the way the side of his lip quirked up. “So. I know how you just said that you needed to remember to not act all Amity, but. Those piles. Are they warm? Because I don’t think there are any computer labs in the Merc Mart, and I had to get up in the middle of the night last time to do jumping jacks. And as much as America might like exercise, I'm not the biggest fan.”

Despite the weight that had settled onto Teddy from the visiting day, the side of his lips lifted lift into a small smile. "Really warm. And yeah, you don't have to do jumping jacks, unless you want to."

Billy nodded, already off of the bed as the decision was settled into his head. As he pulled on another pair of socks for good measure, he gave Teddy a serious look. "You had me at 'really warm' and 'no exercise required' definitely sealed the deal."

As he turned back to Teddy with his arms full of blankets, the sight of Teddy caught him up cold. The Amity had laid down on his side, back pressed against the wall as he rested his jaw on a palm. The look on his face was gentle and amused as his other hand patted the open spot on the bed Teddy had made just for Billy. In that moment, Billy knew that he was totally, woefully unprepared for this.

It wasn't as though the Erudite were prudes like the Abnegation. All information was worth having, after all, and that led to a very frank discussion of human sexuality early on for Erudite children. Sex happened, they all knew the mechanics of how it worked and how to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy and that was treated as nothing more shameful than 'This is how you brush your teeth'. 

What they had left out, Billy was now realizing, was how to actually exist around someone that you had those kinds of feelings for. In general, people in Erudite tried to not make too many attachments and while that had suited Tommy just fine, it had been too off putting for Billy. He found other boys attractive, and only other boys and never the girls, but the threat of Kessler's increased attention and the likeliness of being treated like simply a friend with benefits made him keep everyone he could out of arm's reach.

Amity was different about that kind of thing. When he visited there on field trips to see the hydroponic greenhouses and the irrigation systems, the casualness of touch had been the first thing that he'd noticed. A touch to the forearm while asking about what would be planted in the new field was completely normal, as was the kiss to the cheek was the answer was given with neither seeming to be worried about it in the slightest. The Erudite scoffed about the pointless affection on the bus ride back but agreed that the Amity were harmless, while Billy listened to his classmates and pushed down the yearning for that kind of intimacy. 

Yet, as much as he might want it, Billy was also very aware of just how scary the idea was. Teddy's eyes had softened by the time that Billy finally looked down at him and his voice was gentle. "We don't have to."

"I want to." 

Billy was surprised by the frankness of his own voice, how the words had just left him with no thought necessary. He did want to. And not just because it would be cold night sleeping alone. 

Teddy helped him to add his blankets to the pile as the rustles of the fabric filled the room. Billy slid onto the bed and under the cover without meeting the other boy's eyes, fearing that what he saw in them would be entirely too much. "So uh. How do we do this?"

"Oh!" Teddy scratched at his forehead, a little tic he always did when he was feeling overwhelmed. _'Good._ Billy thought, _'It's not just me.'_

"Well. We could lay back to back, but the bed is pretty small and I'm pretty big so there wouldn't be a lot of room. Same with face to face. We could lay stomach to chest, if you want. I mean, I could roll over if you want to be in back-"

"No, that sounds fine." Billy gave Teddy a tight smile and took comfort in the fact that Teddy looked just as clueless as Billy. His heart seemed about ready to beat out of his chest as Billy laid down and stared for a moment at the snowy window.

The bed was cold, despite the blankets piled up and goosebumps flickered up Billy's skin as he listened to the woosh of Teddy's breathing. He was right up against the edge of the bed and Teddy was pressed against the wall, leaving a inch or so of open air between them. "Are you still cold?" Teddy asked, voice so close to Billy's ear that he shivered a little. 

"Guess the answer is yes." He responded, desperate to play off the little quiver. Teddy reached over and tugged the blankets up over their heads and Billy could smell the faintest hint of patchouli on his sleeve. 

Teddy's fingers twitched as he finished enclosing them in the cocoon of blankets as though he was thinking something through. Finally, his arm curled against Billy's midsection and heat bloomed down his back as Teddy scooted closer. 

"Is that better?" Teddy's voice was a murmur but he sounded almost as freaked out as Billy felt, which was a comfort. 

"Yep! Snug as a bug in a rug, that's definitely me right now. Definitely." 

That wasn’t a lie, not completely. Billy was comfortable and was definitely warm under all of the blankets. But his mind was racing. One part of him was eagerly dissecting the feel of having another man so close and trying to compare how he’d thought that it felt, with how it actually was. Another part was completely panicking about how this was clearly a very terrible idea while another wondered just how weird it would be if excused himself to go to the bathroom and jerk off first. Teddy’s hand was lightly pressed against Billy’s stomach and the contact was dizzying and all the more embarrassing for the fact that he was so turned by being held so close.

He should say something. Start a conversation so that he had something to think about besides how Teddy seemed to be melting against his back. Pulling at anything, he blurted out, “So how long have you known about your mom?”

And of course that was what came out. Billy’s eyes snapped open wide as he tried to think of anything else to say, but Teddy was already responding. “Months.” He murmured, voice all matter of fact. “I didn’t know what it was exactly, but I knew that something was up. But she would never tell me. I hated not knowing.”

“Yeah.” Billy tried to picture Rebecca getting ill like that, and the thought was enough to make him slightly queasy. “What does your Dad think of it?”

“Dunno.” He could feel Teddy shrug and it sent another thrill down his spine to be this close. “In Amity, when someone is pregnant, they let the other party know and offer them the chance to be the father. If they decline, and I guess he did, then it’s up to the mother to either raise the child herself or let it be adopted to someone else in the Faction. All that she’d said about him was that he was a marvel, her words, and that he wasn’t currently a member of Amity. So I think he’s probably dead.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Billy frowned against his pillow.

“Well, yeah. My Mom rules. I didn’t really need a Dad, you know? Everyone was there if I needed them. Amity is family.” Teddy’s head had found it’s way to the crook of Billy’s neck and the words that he spoke sounded more at ease than Billy could have remembered hearing in a while.

That made sense, of course. Teddy was Amity, this kind of thing was normal for him. He’d probably been starving for physical affection since he got to Candor, especially with how sharp and testy the Candor could be. Billy began to brush his thumb against the back of Teddy’s hand and marveled at the small ‘mmph’ sound that it elicited.

“This is nice.” Billy said, voice almost swallowed up by the blankets.

“It is.” Teddy murmured in agreement.

Billy wanted to kiss him desperately at that moment. He wanted to turn around and see what all of the fuss was about and if it was anything like he’d guessed. He wanted to see Teddy’s chin and lips grow red from the scratch of Billy’s dark stubble. He wanted to hear the sounds that he’d make, if he somehow wanted to return the kiss. And it would be easy, he knew. Their faces were already so close, and all that he’d have to do is turn and Teddy would be right there.

That thought kept him awake long after Teddy’s breathing slowed and turns to soft snores in Billy’s ear.

\---------------------------------------------------------------

Tommy snored. Loudly. 

Granted, Eli had usually been able to ignore that. At least Tommy wasn’t like Kate, who was prone to kicking and thrashing in her sleep. The first time that she’d done it, Eli had been sure that she was awake and had done it on purpose. He’d sat up from their ‘bed’, three cots pushed together, and had every intention of growling at her about letting a man sleep but when he looked over, she was still dead asleep.

On this night, Eli wished that she was awake. Or even Tommy would be decent company. But instead, they were both clinging to him for warmth as they slept, leaving Eli on his own as he stared at the ceiling and tried to will his racing thoughts away.

If he was being honest with himself, he had good reason to not be able to sleep. After the events of Visiting Day, it had been all that he could do to keep himself contained until he was able to get to the gym, where the world had faded into sweat and sore muscles.

Kate grunted, a sure sign that a less than pleasant dream was running through her mind and that kicks were imminent. Eli ran his fingers along her temple until she eased back into a dreamless sleep.

“Dude. Why are you still awake.” Tommy grumbled, fidgeting a little before throwing a leg over one of Eli’s. “I can hear your thoughts from here. It’s annoying.”

It irked Eli that he hadn’t noticed that Tommy’s snores had stopped. It should have been obvious enough, the man was clutching his side like a child with a toy. “It’s nothing. Go back to sleep.”

Tommy’s yawn ended with a small squeak, which was painfully adorable but something that Eli could never point out. Better to leave that to Kate. “Buuuullshit.” He singsonged into Eli’s ear. “Lemme guess. You’re still all pissed that the Great Gray Hope came back to his old stomping grounds? Nah, you wouldn’t be mad about that. Now, the fact that he didn’t tell you? Probably. My guess is on the fact that he has obviously banged the instructor you have a big ol’ boner for.”

Eli grit his teeth and swallowed the urge to tell Tommy to shut up and leave Eli to his thoughts. But Tommy was talented at pinpointing Eli’s bullshit and dragging it out of him. But most importantly, Tommy wasn’t going to leave this be, not when there was so much to tease with. “Don’t call Steve the Great Gray Hope.” He whispered back lamely.

“If the shoe fits.” Tommy shrugged a shoulder before sliding his arm up to drift his fingers over the spot above Eli’s heart, where a small star had been tattooed there a month earlier. “The way you talk about him, it sounds like all the Stiffs love him. Bet they wouldn’t like the way he and Bucky were looking at each other though, huh?”

They certainly wouldn’t. Abnegation had accepted Steve’s excuse that he was simply too busy to marry a woman and start having perfect Abnegation children, but it would grow thin eventually. And from the way that Steve had nearly broken into tears at the sight of Bucky and hugged him like that, that was the reason that Steve had never married.

“It was the way that the Dauntless jeered at him.” The sounds as Steve had entered the compound still made him queasy. He understood it now, after Bucky had explained, but it still didn’t seem right. Steve had been born to Dauntless, yes. He’d been raised by Dauntless. And he Chose Abnegation. It was his right, even if some might disagree with the idea of someone choosing being a Stiff over a hooligan. “That was fucked.”

“Yeah. It was. Rebecca said that it ‘likely stemmed from feelings of inadequacy as a Faction’.” He imitated the clinical voice of his adopted mother at the end, a surprisingly good impression. “I think they were just being fuckheads who thought it made them look like hot shit. Don’t worry about it, man.”

“It isn’t that easy.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. I’m still called Stiff. I know that people are still waiting for me to fail and drop out and think I only made it this far because of preferential treatment of some kind. If they feel that way about Steve, what do they-”

Tommy’s teeth were sharp on his earlobe, sharp enough the Eli had to bite back a grunt. “Fuck ‘em. Well, don’t because the Princess and I get you, but seriously. If they fuck with you, take them out. Which you can, since you can outfight almost all of the Dauntless born initiates. Well, not Laura but she’s a fuckin’ mini Wolverine. Anyway. You’re Dauntless. Not a Stiff and not some pussy that’ll just take that kind of crap.”

Tommy had propped himself up onto his elbow midway during his speech and Eli was momentarily struck by how serious his amber eyes looked from behind his bangs. “Don’t pull that ‘I’m not worthy, so I’m just going to pull back and let people have their way’ shit. You earned your place here. If people don’t get it? They don’t deserve you.”

Eli searched for words, but they had left him. He would never really understand Tommy, he realized. He was like quicksilver, solid at one moment and the liquid the next, constantly reshaping himself in the strangest of ways. One second he could be an idiot, the next a savant, and then right back to being an idiot. He knew Kate, knew her cold. She could look over at him and he’d know exactly what was on her mind and what got her angry. But Tommy was an unknown and was all the more fascinating for it. With a crook of his finger, he beckoned for Tommy to lean down close enough for a kiss, one that he hoped could get across what he could not say aloud. At least not now.

As they parted, Tommy give him an impish grin. “Right. Now. Fucking go to sleep, dumbass.”

“Ditto. T’ all of that.” Kate grumbled into Eli’s chest, eliciting grins from both of them as they settled back in.

Eli fell asleep counting their breaths.

\-----------------------------------------------------

Xavin had never known that snow made a sound when it fell. Karolina said that it was like a million tiny shush sounds and for as silly as it sounded, Xavin had to agree. She was growing to enjoy the orchard when it was like this, quiet and hushed except for the wind in the trees and Karolina’s mewling whimper as she shuddered against Xavin.

Karolina smiled into the kiss that Xavin pressed to her lips, arms languid in her heavy coat as she rested them around the Dauntless girl’s shoulders. Xavin slid her hand out of Karolina’s pants and wiped her fingers onto her shirt as she said softly, “Do you think we should go back in?”

“Not yet.” Her teeth were as bright behind her rosy lips as the snow that fell and Xavin swelled with love. “It’s so noisy in there. Which I like, but. It’s nice to have you all to myself.”

Xavin thought, privately, that it was an ironic thing for her to say. Karolina was Amity to her core and the Amity loved her for it. She felt everything so fully, from pain to joy to sorrow and while Xavin knew she would never be able to come close to being as good an Amity, she couldn’t hold back her jealousy as others tried to divert Karolina’s time.

Xavin was working on it. Really.

“Same.” Was all the she responded with. She wrapped her arms around Karolina and pressed her back against the apple tree, keeping them tight together and as warm as she could.

Karolina’s voice sounded like bell chimes, and at times, Xavin wished she could just hear the sounds instead of comprehend the words that she said. This was one of those times. “I’m sorry that your parents didn’t come to Visitor’s day.”

“It’s fine.” Xavin said quickly. It wasn’t, of course. Dean had been her idol from the moment that she could think, only second to the great Kurt. She had loved her father with the same intensity that she did anything and had lived most her life trying to impress him or make him notice the small child that his wife had carried for nine months and born.

He hadn’t, except for brief glorious moments when he would look at her, usually when she was bloodied and fierce, and nod his approval. And then, as quickly as his attention came, it was gone. The most emotion she’d seen out of him had been the moment in which he bellowed in anger at her Choosing Ceremony and had to be held back. Otherwise, she was sure that he would have stormed down the stairs, grab her by her hair and drag her back to do the right thing and join Dauntless.

Xavin didn’t like to talk about her father, not here. The Amity would all give her the same sad smile, a combination of ‘You poor thing’ and ‘Thank the Goddess you’re here now!’, and it would grate on her. Now, she had learned to say that her father had only been distant and hope that the Amity hadn’t noticed her father’s outburst at the Ceremony.

Her eyes closed as Karolina let out a small huff of a sigh and pressed her lips against Xavin’s temple. “Okay. If you say so. But, you know, I still think that it was kinda shitty for them to do that. Not to judge, of course! But I would visit you.”

She couldn’t hide her smile at that, though she did try for a moment. Being open like this and expressive had proved to be difficult for Xavin. A part of her would begin to loosen up and the rest of her barriers would snap up tight as a trap in response. If it hadn’t been for Karolina, Xavin was sure that she’d have been politely asked to leave a while ago. But the Amity seemed to find their romance sweet and likely expected that Karolina would get Xavin to open up. Which she admittedly had.

Xavin didn’t much feel like talking and had nothing to say in response to Karolina’s sweetness. But she did tug down the blonde girl’s yellow scarf and press a kiss to her neck, listening in smug pleasure as her breath grew breathy once again.

But suddenly, Xavin heard more than just them. She looked around like a hawk, cursing herself for letting her guard down, and quickly pulled Karolina to the other side of the tree as she spied a dark haired woman in a scarlet cloak walking down the orchard. 

The woman was beautiful, that was clear enough. Her skin was alabaster even against the snow and her hair was dark and curled from where it peeked from under her hat. She walked like she belonged there, which was possible even if Xavin that that she’d never seen this woman before. Karolina gave Xavin a quizzical look but soon joined her as they peeked out to watch the woman’s stroll.

A man was in front of her, there in what seemed like a blink, and Xavin tensed. But the man did not attack her and the woman only laughed at him. Xavin tried to pick out the man’s faction but found herself struggling. He could, possibly, be Erudite. That was the only Faction colors that could possibly look greenish from this far out, but he talked animatedly like a Candor, all hands and gestures.

He passed something to her, giving her a quick hug before seeming to vanish as quickly as he’d appeared. The woman looked down at the package in her hand and her face fell a bit. As she strode off in the direction from which she’d come, Karolina leaned over to whisper into Xavin’s ear. “What do you think that was all about?”

Xavin shivered and was not entirely sure why she’d done so. “I don’t know. But I don’t like it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Teddy was singing 'Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gX1EP6mG-E ) Darius Rucker covered it, but I prefer the original. 
> 
> Blame Teddy playing the guitar on an image that I had in my mind of him just sitting on his bed and strumming, looking content and happy. I know the canon Teddy hasn't shown any interest in playing music, but well. It's what an Amity would do. I'm also pleased that I could FINALLY work in Steve backstory into this, which was the bit that I was hemming and hawing over in the last chapter. Also, Xavin is a surprising delight to write for.


End file.
